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'{{other uses}} {{Infobox fictional location | name = Thule | colour = #C0C0C0 | image = Thule carta marina Olaus Magnus.jpg | imagesize = 250px | caption = Thule as ''Tile'' on the [[Carta Marina]] of 1539 by [[Olaus Magnus]], where it is shown located to the northwest of the Orkney islands, with a "monster, seen in 1537", a whale ("balena"), and an [[Orca#Cultural references|orca]] nearby. | source = ''On the Ocean'' | creator = [[Pytheas]] | genre = Classical literature | type = Fictional island | locations = | people = }} [[File:StampThule1935Michel3.jpg|right|thumb|A [[local stamp]] of Greenland 1936, inscribed ''Thule'']] '''Thule''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|θj|uː|l|iː}} {{respell|THEW|lee}}<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] second edition |title=Thule |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/201483 |access-date=7 December 2018| date=1989 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> ''{{lang-grc-gre|Θούλη}}'' ''Thoúlē'', {{lang-la|Thūlē}}) is the farthest north location mentioned in [[ancient Greek literature|ancient Greek]] and [[Latin literature|Roman]] literature and [[cartography]]. Modern interpretations have included [[Orkney]], [[Shetland]], the island of [[Saaremaa]] (Ösel) in Estonia,<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.saartehaal.ee/2015/10/17/raamat-saaremaa-ongi-ultima-thule/ | title=Raamat: Saaremaa ongi Ultima Thule| date=2015-10-16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.err.ee/550811/saaremaal-arutati-kuidas-ultima-thule-muuti-turundamisel-ara-kasutada | title=Saaremaal arutati, kuidas Ultima Thule müüti turundamisel ära kasutada| date=2015-12-12}}</ref> and the Norwegian island of [[Smøla (island)|Smøla]].<ref name=Germania>Andreas Kleineberg, Christian Marx, Eberhard Knobloch und Dieter Lelgemann: ''Germania und die Insel Thule. Die Entschlüsselung von Ptolemaios' "Atlas der Oikumene".'' Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2010.</ref> In classical and medieval literature, '''''ultima Thule''''' (Latin "farthermost Thule") acquired a metaphorical meaning of any distant place located beyond the "borders of the known world".<ref>{{cite book|first1=Nieves|last1=Herrero|first2=Sharon R.|last2=Roseman|title=The Tourism Imaginary and Pilgrimages to the Edges of the World|url=https://books.google.com/?id=qu3jCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA122&dq=%22In+medieval+geography,+however,+Ultima+Thule+referred+to+any+far+away+place%22#v=onepage&q=%22In%20medieval%20geography%2C%20however%2C%20Ultima%20Thule%20referred%20to%20any%20far%20away%20place%22&f=false|page=122|publisher=Channel View Publications|year=2015|isbn=9781845415235}}</ref> By the [[Late Middle Ages]] and [[early modern period]], the Greco-Roman Thule was often identified with the real [[Iceland]] or [[Greenland]]. Sometimes ''Ultima Thule'' was a [[Latin]] name for Greenland, when ''Thule'' was used for Iceland.<ref name=dictionary>{{cite book|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3DThule|author1=Charlton T. Lewis|author2=Charles Short|title=A Latin Dictionary|accessdate=5 April 2017|year=1879|location=Oxford|publisher=Clarendon Press}}</ref> By the late 19th century, however, ''Thule'' was frequently identified with [[Norway]].<ref name="oxforddictionaries.com">{{Cite web | url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0862120#m_en_gb0862120 | title=English Dictionary, Thesaurus, & grammar help &#124; Oxford Dictionaries}}</ref><ref>Bostock & Riley (1893) page 352 (on "Chapter 30 (16) – Britannia") assert: "Opinions as to the identity of ancient Thule have been numerous in the extreme." The notes on Book IV of Pliny in an 1829 translation into French by Ajasson de Grandsagne mention six, which are taken word-for-word in translation by Bostock & Riley (their words in quotes): ― * "That Thule is the island of [[Iceland]]." Burton (1875) pages 1, 25. * "That it is either the [[Faroe Islands|Ferroe Group]], or one of those islands." Burton pages 22–23. * "The notion of [[Ortelius]], Farnaby, and Schœnning, that it is identical with [[Telemark|Thylemark]] in [[Norway]]." Burton page 25. * "The opinion of [[Conrad Malte-Brun|Malte Brun]], that the continental portion of [[Denmark]] is meant thereby, a part of which is to the present day called [[Thy (district)|Thy]] or Thyland." Fotheringham (1862) page 497. * "The opinion of [[Olaus Rudbeck|Rudbeck]] and of Calstron, borrowed originally from [[Procopius]], that this is a general name for the whole of [[Scandinavia]]." Grandsagne (1829) page 338: "L'idée de Rudbeck ... et de Calstron ... due originairement à Procope, qui ... a prononcé nettement que sous ce nom était comprise toute la Scandinavie." The reference is to Procopius Book III No. 4. * "That of Gosselin, who thinks that under this name [[Mainland, Shetland|Mainland]], the principal of the [[Shetland Islands]], is meant. The reference to "Gosselin" or elsewhere "M. Gosselin" and his monumental work dating from the time of the French Revolution is much copied even though miscited. No such geographer existed; the "M." must stand for ''Monsieur''. The [[Library of Congress]] catalog cites the work as: {{cite book|first=Pascal François Joseph|last=Gossellin|title=Recherches sur la géographie systématique et positive anciens; pour servir de base à l'histoire de la géographie ancienne|url=http://lccn.loc.gov/02007793|location=Paris|publisher=L'imprimerie de la république [etc.] an VI|orig-year=1798|year=1813}} This four-volume work is rare and inaccessible today. The opinion is said to come from Volume I page 162 under the title ''Thulé''. Bostock and Riley continue: "It is by no means impossible that under the name of Thule two or more of these localities may have been meant, by different authors writing at distant periods and under different states of geographical knowledge. It is also pretty generally acknowledged, as Parisot remarks, that the Thule mentioned by Ptolemy is identical with Thylemark in Norway."</ref> In 1910, the explorer [[Knud Rasmussen]] established a missionary and trading post in north-western Greenland, which he named "Thule" (later [[Qaanaaq]]). Thule has given its name to the northernmost United States Air Force airfield, [[Thule Air Base]] in northwest [[Greenland]], and to the smaller lobe of Kuiper belt object {{mpl|(486958) 2014 MU|69}}, visited by the ''[[New Horizons]]'' spacecraft. ==Classical antiquity and the Middle Ages== The [[Greeks|Greek]] explorer [[Pytheas]] of Massalia (now Marseille, France) is the first to have written of Thule, after his travels between 330 and 320 BC. Pytheas mentioned going to Thule in his now [[lost work]], ''Things about the Ocean'' Τὰ περὶ τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ (''ta peri tou Okeanou''). He supposedly was sent out by the Greek city of [[Marseille|Massalia]] to see where their trade goods were coming from.<ref>[[L. Sprague de Camp]] (1954). ''[[Lost Continents]]'', p. 57.</ref> Descriptions of some of his discoveries have survived in the works of later, often skeptical, authors. [[Polybius]] in his ''Histories'' (c. 140 BC), Book XXXIV, cites Pytheas as one "who has led many people into error by saying that he traversed the whole of Britain on foot, giving the island a circumference of forty thousand [[Stadion (unit)|stadia]], and telling us also about Thule, those regions in which there was no longer any proper land nor sea nor air, but a sort of mixture of all three of the consistency of a [[jellyfish]] in which one can neither walk nor sail, holding everything together, so to speak."<ref>Polybius. [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/34*.html ''Book XXXIV, 5, 3'']</ref> The first century BC Greek astronomer [[Geminus]] of Rhodes claimed that the name Thule went back to an archaic word for the [[polar night]] phenomenon – "the place where the sun goes to rest".<ref>''Introduction to the Phenomena'', VI. 9</ref> [[Dionysius Periegetes]] in his ''De situ habitabilis orbis'' also touched upon this subject<ref>''Geographici Graeci Minores'', 2. 106</ref> as did [[Martianus Capella]].<ref>''The Problem of Pytheas' Thule'', Ian Whitaker, The Classical Journal, Vol. 77, No. 2 (Dec., 1981 – Jan., 1982), pp. 55–67</ref> Avienus in his ''Ora Maritima'' added that during the summer on Thule night lasted only two hours, a clear reference to the [[midnight sun]].<ref>Whitaker, pp. 56–58.</ref> [[Strabo]], in his ''[[Geographica]]'' (c. AD 30),<ref> [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/1D*.html Book I, Chapter 4]</ref> mentions Thule in describing [[Eratosthenes]]' calculation of "the breadth of the inhabited world" and notes that Pytheas says it "is a six days' sail north of Britain, and is near the frozen sea". But he then doubts this claim, writing that Pytheas has "been found, upon scrutiny, to be an arch falsifier, but the men who have seen Britain and Ireland do not mention Thule, though they speak of other islands, small ones, about Britain". Strabo adds the following in Book 5: "Now Pytheas of Massilia tells us that Thule, the most northerly of the Britannic Islands, is farthest north, and that there the circle of the summer tropic is the same as the Arctic Circle. But from the other writers I learn nothing on the subject – neither that there exists a certain island by the name of Thule, nor whether the northern regions are inhabitable up to the point where the summer tropic becomes the [[Arctic Circle]]."<ref>[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2E1*.html Book II, Chapter 5]</ref> Strabo ultimately concludes,<ref name="strabo iv">[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/4E*.html Book IV, Chapter 5].</ref> "Concerning Thule, our historical information is still more uncertain, on account of its outside position; for Thule, of all the countries that are named, is set farthest north." The inhabitants or people of Thule are described in most detail by Strabo (citing Pytheas): "the people (of Thule) live on millet and other herbs, and on fruits and roots; and where there are grain and honey, the people get their beverage, also, from them. As for the grain, he says, since they have no pure sunshine, they pound it out in large storehouses, after first gathering in the ears thither; for the threshing floors become useless because of this lack of sunshine and because of the rains".<ref>{{cite book|title=Geographica, 4. 5. 5|author=Strabo|translator=Jones, H.L.|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, MA|date=1917}}</ref> The mid-first century Roman geographer [[Pomponius Mela]] placed Thule north of [[Scythia]].<ref>''De Situ Orbis'', III, 57.</ref> In AD 77, [[Pliny the Elder]] published his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' in which he also cites Pytheas' claim (in Book II, Chapter 75) that Thule is a six-day sail north of Britain. Then, when discussing the islands around Britain,<ref name="strabo iv"/> he writes: "The farthest of all, which are known and spoke of, is Thule; in which there be no nights at all, as we have declared, about mid-summer, namely when the Sun passes through the sign Cancer; and contrariwise no days in mid-winter: and each of these times they suppose, do last six months, all day, or all night." Finally, in refining the island's location, he places it along the most northerly parallel of those he describes: "Last of all is the Scythian parallel, from the Rhiphean hills into Thule: wherein (as we said) it is day and night continually by turns (for six months)."<ref>[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/holland/pliny6.html Book VI, Chapter 34].</ref> The Roman historian [[Tacitus]], in his book chronicling the life of his father-in-law, [[Gnaeus Julius Agricola|Agricola]], describes how the Romans knew that Britain (in which Agricola was Roman commander) was an island rather than a continent, by circumnavigating it. Tacitus writes of a Roman ship visiting the Orkneys and claims the ship's crew even sighted Thule. However their orders were not to explore there, as winter was at hand.<ref>[[Tacitus]], Agricola, [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/tacitus/tac.agri.shtml 10].</ref> Some scholars believe that Tacitus was referring to [[Shetland]]. The third-century Latin grammarian [[Gaius Julius Solinus]] wrote in his ''Polyhistor'' that "Thyle, which was distant from Orkney by a voyage of five days and nights, was fruitful and abundant in the lasting yield of its crops".<ref name="orkneyjar.com">Ab Orcadibus Thylen usque quinque dierum ac noctium navigatio est; sed Thyle larga et diutina Pomona copiosa est.[http://www.orkneyjar.com/placenames/pomona.htm]</ref> The 4th century Virgilian commentator [[Servius]] also believed that Thule sat close to Orkney: "Thule; an island in the Ocean between the northern and western zone, beyond Britain, near Orkney and Ireland; in this Thule, when the sun is in Cancer, it is said that there are perpetual days without nights..."<ref name="fjor.net">"''Thule; insula est Oceani inter septemtrionalem et occidentalem plagam, ultra Britanniam, iuxta Orcades et Hiberniam; in hac Thule cum sol in Cancro est, perpetui dies sine noctibus dicuntur&nbsp;...''"[https://web.archive.org/web/20110723130045/http://fjor.net/etome/grecoroman/servius-bi.html]</ref> Other late classical writers and post-classical writers, such as [[Orosius]] (384–420) and the Irish monk [[Dicuil]] (late eighth and early ninth century), describe Thule as being north and west of both Ireland and Britain, strongly suggesting that it was Iceland. In particular, Dicuil described Thule as being beyond islands that seem to be the [[Faroe Islands]] (which are between Shetland and Iceland). [[Solinus]] (d. AD 400) in his ''Polyhistor'', repeated these descriptions, noting that the people of Thule had a fertile land where they grew a good production of crop and fruits.<ref>{{cite book|author=Solinus|title=Polyhistor}} Ch. XXXIV</ref> In the writings of the historian [[Procopius]], from the first half of the sixth century, Thule is a large island in the north inhabited by 25 tribes. It is believed that Procopius is really talking about a part of Scandinavia, since several tribes are easily identified, including the [[Geats]] (''Gautoi'') in present-day Sweden and the [[Sami people]] (''Scrithiphini''). He also writes that when the [[Herules]] returned, they passed the [[Warini]] and the [[Danes]] and then crossed the sea to Thule, where they settled beside the Geats. === Modern research === The British surveyor [[Charles Vallancey]] (1731–1812) was one of many antiquarians to argue that [[Ireland]] was Thule, as he does in his book ''An essay on the antiquity of the Irish language''.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/anessayonantiqu00vallgoog An essay on the antiquity of the Irish language]</ref> Another hypothesis, first proposed by [[Lennart Meri]] in 1976, holds that the island of [[Saaremaa]] (which is often known by the [[exonym]] Osel) in [[Estonia]], could be Thule. That is, there is a phonological similarity between Thule and the [[root word|root]] ''tule-'' "of fire" in [[Estonian language|Estonian]] (and other [[Finnic languages]]). A [[crater lake]] named [[Kaali crater|Kaali]] on the island appears to be have been formed by a [[meteor strike]] in prehistory.<ref name="Silverwhite">{{cite book | author = [[Lennart Meri]] | authorlink = | year = 1976 | title = Hõbevalge (Silverwhite) | edition = | publisher = Eesti Raamat | location = [[Tallinn]], [[Estonia]] | id = | title-link =Silverwhite }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.saartehaal.ee/2015/10/17/raamat-saaremaa-ongi-ultima-thule/ | title=Raamat: Saaremaa ongi Ultima Thule| date=2015-10-16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.err.ee/550811/saaremaal-arutati-kuidas-ultima-thule-muuti-turundamisel-ara-kasutada | title=Saaremaal arutati, kuidas Ultima Thule müüti turundamisel ära kasutada| date=2015-12-12}}</ref> This meteor strike is often linked to Estonian folklore which has it that Saaremaa was a place where the sun at one point "went to rest". In 2010, scientists from the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation Science at the [[Technical University of Berlin]] claimed to have identified persistent errors in calculation that had occurred in attempts by modern geographers to superimpose [[geographic coordinate system]]s upon Ptolemaic maps. After correcting for these errors, the scientists claimed, Ptolemy's Thule could be mapped to the Norwegian island of [[Smøla (island)|Smøla]].<ref name=Germania>Andreas Kleineberg, Christian Marx, Eberhard Knobloch und Dieter Lelgemann: ''Germania und die Insel Thule. Die Entschlüsselung von Ptolemaios' "Atlas der Oikumene".'' Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2010.</ref> ==Modern geography and science== In 1775, during his second voyage, [[Captain Cook]] named an island in the high southern latitudes of the [[South Atlantic Ocean]], [[Southern Thule]]. The name is now used for a group of three southernmost islands in the [[South Sandwich Islands]], one of which is called [[Thule Island]]. The island group became a [[British overseas territory]] of the [[United Kingdom]], albeit also claimed by [[Argentina]] (in Spanish ''Islas Tule del Sur''). In 1910, the explorer [[Knud Rasmussen]] established a missionary and trading post, which he named [[Avannaa|Thule]] (Inuit: ''Avanaa'') on Greenland. The [[Thule people]], the predecessor of modern [[Inuit]] [[Greenlanders]], were named after the Thule region. In 1953, Avanaa became [[Thule Air Base]], operated by [[United States Air Force]]. The population was forced to resettle to [[Qaanaaq|New Thule]] (Qaanaaq), {{convert|67|mi|km|-1|order=flip}} to the north ({{coord|76|31|50.21|N|68|42|36.13|W|display=inline}} only 840 [[Nautical mile|NM]] from the [[North Pole]]). <ref>Gilberg (1976) page 86. Hunting activities here are described in the January 2006 National Geographic.</ref> The [[Scottish Gaelic language|Scottish Gaelic]] for [[Iceland]] is ''Innis Tile'', which literally means the "Isle of Thule".<ref>[http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaidhlig/faclair/sbg/lorg.php?facal=Iceland&seorsa=Beurla&tairg=Lorg&eis_saor=on Rannsaich an Stòr-dàta Briathrachais Gàidhlig<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Thule lends its name to the 69th element in the [[periodic table]], [[thulium]]. Ultima Thule is the name of a location in the [[Mammoth Cave]] system in Kentucky, United States. It was formerly the terminus of the known-explorable southeastern (upstream) end of the passage called "Main Cave", before discoveries made in 1908 by [[Ed Bishop]] and [[Max Kaemper]] showed an area accessible beyond it, now the location of the [[Violet City Entrance]]. The Violet City Lantern tour offered at the cave passes through Ultima Thule near the conclusion of the route. The Southern Thule islands were occupied by Argentina in 1976. The occupation was not militarily contested by the British until the 1982 [[Falklands War]], during which time British sovereignty was restored by a contingent of [[Royal Marines]]. Currently the three islands are uninhabited. In March 2018, following a naming competition, the [[Kuiper belt]] object {{mpl|(486958) 2014 MU|69}}, a fly-by target of the [[NASA]] probe ''[[New Horizons]]'', was nicknamed "Ultima Thule". The fly-by took place on 1 January 2019, and was the most distant encounter between a spacecraft and a planetary body. An official name for the body will be assigned by the [[International Astronomical Union]] after the fly-by.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-chooses-nickname-for-ultimate-flyby-target|title= New Horizons Chooses Nickname for 'Ultimate' Flyby Target|website=NASA|date=13 March 2018|accessdate=13 March 2018}}</ref> ==Literary references== ===Classical literature=== In the metaphorical sense of a far-off land or an unattainable goal, [[Virgil]] coined the term ''Ultima Thule'' ([[Georgics]], 1. 30) meaning "farthermost Thule".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://quotes.dictionary.com/furthermost_thule_ultima_thule |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2011-03-14 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710123344/http://quotes.dictionary.com/furthermost_thule_ultima_thule |archivedate=2011-07-10 |df= }}</ref> [[Seneca the Younger]] writes of a day when new lands will be discovered past Thule.<ref>Seneca: Medea, v. 379. Translated by Frank Justus Miller [http://www.theoi.com/Text/SenecaMedea.html]: "There will come an age in the far-off years when Ocean shall unloose the bonds of things, when the whole broad earth shall be revealed, when Tethys shall disclose new worlds and Thule not be the limit of the lands." (Original text [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/sen/sen.medea.shtml]: ''"venient annis saecula seris, quibus Oceanus vincula rerum laxet et ingens pateat tellus Tethysque novos detegat orbes nec sit terris ultima Thule"'').</ref> This was later quoted widely in the context of [[Christopher Columbus]]' voyages.{{cn|date=May 2016}} The Roman poet [[Silius Italicus]] (AD 25 – 101), who wrote that the people of Thule were painted blue: "the blue-painted native of Thule, when he fights, drives around the close-packed ranks in his scythe-bearing chariot",<ref>{{cite book|author = Italicus, Silius|title=Punica, ''17. 416''|url= http://www.dot-domesday.me.uk/anglesey.htm}}</ref> implying a link to the [[Picts]] (whose [[exonym]] is derived from the Latin ''pictus'' "painted"). [[Martial]] (AD 40 – 104) talks about "blue" and "painted Britons",<ref>{{cite book|author=Martial|title=Epigrammata, ''XI, 53; XIV, 99''}}</ref> just like [[Julius Caesar]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Julius Caesar|title=De Bello Gallico, ''V, 14''}}</ref> Claudian (AD 370 – 404) also believed that the inhabitants of Thule were Picts.<ref>{{cite book|author=Claudian|title=On the Fourth Consulship of the Emperor Honorius}} Book VIII</ref> A work of prose fiction in Greek by [[Antonius Diogenes]] entitled ''The Wonders Beyond Thule'' appeared c. AD 150 or earlier. (Gerald N. Sandy, in the introduction to his translation of [[Photios I of Constantinople|Photius]]' ninth century summary of the work,<ref name="wonders_intro">{{cite book | editor = B. P. Reardon | authorlink = | year = 1989 | title = Collected Ancient Greek Novels | edition = | publisher = University of California Press | location = Berkeley, Los Angeles, London | isbn = 978-0-520-04306-0}}</ref> notes that this Thule most closely matches Iceland.) [[Cleomedes]] referenced Pytheas' journey to Thule, but added no new information.<ref>Whitaker, p. 56.</ref> Early in the fifth century AD [[Claudian]], in his poem, ''On the Fourth Consulship of the Emperor Honorius'', [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Claudian/De_IV_Consulatu_Honorii*.html Book VIII], rhapsodizes on the conquests of the emperor [[Theodosius I]], declaring that the ''Orcades'' "ran red with [[Saxon]] slaughter; Thule was warm with the blood of [[Picts]]; ice-bound [[Hibernia]] [Ireland] wept for the heaps of slain [[Scot]]s". This implies that Thule was [[Scotland]]. But in ''Against Rufinias'', the [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Claudian/In_Rufinum/2*.html Second Poem], Claudian writes of "Thule lying icebound beneath the pole-star". [[Jordanes]] in his ''Getica'' also wrote that Thule sat under the pole-star.<ref>''Getica'', Book I, Chapter 9.</ref> The "known world' of the Europeans came to be viewed as bounded in the east by India and in the west by Thule, as expressed in the ''[[Consolation of Philosophy]]'' (III, 203 = metrus V, v. 7) by [[Boethius]]. "For though the earth, as far as India's shore, tremble before the laws you give, though Thule bow to your service on earth's farthest bounds, yet if thou canst not drive away black cares, if thou canst not put to flight complaints, then is no true power thine."<ref name="Consolation">{{cite book | editor = Irwin Edman | authorlink = | others=W. V. Cooper (trans.) | year = 1943 | title = The Consolation of Philosophy | edition = | publisher = The Modern Library, Random House | location = New York }}</ref> ===Medieval and early modern works=== In the early seventh century, [[Isidore of Seville]] wrote in his ''[[Etymologiae|Etymologies]]'' that:<blockquote>Ultima Thule (''Thyle ultima'') is an island of the Ocean in the northwestern region, beyond Britannia, taking its name from the sun, because there the sun makes its summer solstice, and there is no daylight beyond (''ultra'') this. Hence its sea is sluggish and frozen.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville|last=Isidore of Seville|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-521-14591-6|location=|pages=294|translator-last1=Barney|translator-first1=Stephen A.|translator-last2=Lewis|translator-first2=W.J.|translator-last3=Beach|translator-first3=J.A.|translator-last4=Berghof|translator-first4=Oliver}}</ref></blockquote>Isidore distinguished this from the islands of Britannia, Thanet (''Tanatos''), the Orkneys (''Orcades''), and Ireland (''Scotia'' or ''Hibernia'').<ref name=":0" /> Isidore was to have a large influence upon [[Bede]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville|last=Isidore of Seville|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-521-14591-6|location=|pages=24–25|translator-last1=Barney|translator-first1=Stephen A.|translator-last2=Lewis|translator-first2=W.J.|translator-last3=Beach|translator-first3=J.A.|translator-last4=Berghof|translator-first4=Oliver}}</ref> who was later to mention Thule. By the late [[Middle Ages]], scholars were linking Iceland and/or Greenland to the name Thule and/or places reported by the Irish mariner [[Saint Brendan]] (in the 6th century) and other distant or mythical locations, such as [[Hy Brasil]] and [[Cockaigne]]. These scholars included works by [[Dicuil]] (see above), the [[Anglo-Saxon]] monk the [[Venerable Bede]] in ''[[De ratione temporum]]'', the [[Landnámabók]],{{citation needed|date=April 2016}} by the anonymous ''[[Historia Norwegie]]'',{{citation needed|date=April 2016}} and by the German cleric [[Adam of Bremen]] in his ''[[Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church]]'', where they cite both ancient writers' use of Thule as well as new knowledge since the end of antiquity. All these authors also understood that other islands were situated to the north of Britain. [[Eustathius of Thessalonica]], in his twelfth-century commentary on the ''[[Iliad]],'' wrote that the inhabitants of Thule were at war with a tribe whose members dwarf-like, only 20 fingers in height.<ref>{{cite web|author=Eustathius of Thessalonica|title=Eustath. ad Hom. |page= 372|url=http://www.theoi.com/Phylos/Pygmaioi.html|website=Theoi.com/phylos/Pygmaioi}}</ref> The American classical scholar [[Charles Anthon]] believed this legend may have been rooted in history (although exaggerated), if the dwarf or pygmy tribe were interpreted as being a smaller [[Indigenous peoples|aboriginal]] tribe of Britain the people on Thule had encountered.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Classical Dictionary, ''Vol. II''|date= 1888|author=Anthon, Charles |page= 1146}}</ref> [[Petrarch]], in the fourteenth century, wrote in his ''[[Epistolae familiares]]'' ("Familiar Letters") that Thule lay in the unknown regions of the far north-west.<ref>{{cite book|author=Petrarch (14 century)|title=Epistolae Familiares'', III. 1''}}</ref> A madrigal by [[Thomas Weelkes]], entitled ''Thule'' (1600), describes it with reference to the Icelandic volcano [[Hekla]]: {{poemquote|Thule, the period of cosmography, Doth vaunt of [[Hekla|Hecla]], whose sulphureous fire Doth melt the frozen clime and thaw the sky; Trinacrian [[Mount Etna|Etna]]'s flames ascend not higher ...<ref>{{cite book|url=http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2268.html|author=Weelkes, Thomas|title=RPO – Thomas Weelkes : Thule, the Period of Cosmography|deadurl=yes|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070809082644/http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2268.html|archivedate=2007-08-09|df=}}</ref>}} The English poet [[Ambrose Philips]] began, but did not complete, a poem concerning ''[[s:Pastorals Epistles Odes (1748)/Fable of Thule|The Fable of Thule]]'' which he published in 1748. Thule is referred to in [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]'s poem "[[Der König in Thule]]" (1774), famously set to music by [[Franz Schubert]] (D 367, 1816), [[Franz Liszt]] (S.531) and [[Robert Schumann]] (Op.67, No.1), and in the collection ''[[s:Ultima Thule|Ultima Thule]]'' (1880) by [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]]. ===Modern literature=== [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s poem "[[Poems by Edgar Allan Poe#Dream-Land (1844)|Dream-Land]]" (1844) begins with the following stanza: {{poemquote|By a route obscure and lonely, Haunted by ill angels only, Where an Eidolon, named Night, On a black throne reigns upright. I have reached these lands but newly From an ultimate dim Thule – From a wild weird clime, that lieth, sublime, Out of Space – out of Time.}} John Henry Wilbrandt Stuckenberg wrote on the subject in 1885: {{Quotation| What is the mind’s ''ultima Thule''? What substance must be regarded as first, and therefore as the seed of the universe? What is the eternal Something, of which the temporal is but a manifestation? Matter? Spirit? Matter and Spirit? Something behind both and from which they have sprung, neither Matter nor Spirit, but their Creator? Or is there in reality neither Matter nor Spirit, but only an agnostic Cause of the phenomena erroneously assigned by us to body and mind? After spending many years in profoundly investigating this problem, I have at last struck bottom. Unhesitatingly and unconditionally I adopt materialism, and declare it to be the sole and all-sufficient explanation of the universe. This affords the only thoroughly scientific system; and nowhere but in its legitimate conclusions can thought find suitable resting-place, the heart complete satisfaction, and life a perfect basis. Unless it accepts this system, philosophy will be but drift-wood, instead of the stream of thought whose current bears all truth. Materialism, thorough, consistent, and fearless, not the timid, reserved, and half-hearted kind, is the hope of the world.|''The Final Science: or Spiritual Materialism'' (1885) by John Henry Wilbrandt Stuckenberg (1835–1903), p.&nbsp;6<ref>{{cite book|author=Stuckenberg, John Henry Wilbrandt|date=1885|url=https://archive.org/stream/thefinalscience00stucuoft#page/8/mode/1up |title=The Final Science: or Spiritual Materialism|page=6|publisher=New York : Funk & Wagnalls}}</ref>}} [[Kelly Miller (scientist)|Kelly Miller]], addressing the Hampton Alumni Association in 1899, explained that "Civilization may be defined as the sum total of those influences and agencies that make for knowledge and virtue. This is the goal, the ''ultima Thule,'' of all human strivings. The essential factors of civilization are knowledge, industry, culture, and virture."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/lcrbmrp.t2116/?sp=6|title=The Primary Needs of the Negro Race: An Address delivered before the Alumni Association of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute|last=Miller|first=Kelly|publisher=Howard University|year=1899|isbn=|location=Washington, DC|pages=6}}</ref> [[The Fortunes of Richard Mahony|''Ultima Thule'']] is the title of the 1929 novel by [[Henry Handel Richardson]], set in colonial [[Australia]]. "Ultima Thule" is a short story written by author Vladimir Nabokov and published in ''New Yorker'' magazine on April 7, 1973.<ref>{{Cite journal | url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1973/04/07/ultima-thule | title=Ultima Thule| journal=The New Yorker| date=1973-03-31}}</ref> Jorge Luis Borges uses the classic Latin phrase "ultima Thule" in his poem A Reader<ref>{{https://www.poesi.as/jlb0726.htm}}</ref>. He uses the phrase to connect the study of Latin in his younger years to his more recent efforts to read the Icelandic poet [[Snorri Sturluson]]. Bernard Cornwell references Thule in his novel The Lords of the North, the third book in the series The Last Kingdom. The character Uhtred of Bebbanburg calls it, "that strange land of ice and flame". ==In Nazi ideology== In Germany, [[Nazism and occultism|extreme-right occultists]] believed in a historical Thule, or [[Hyperborea]], as the ancient origin of the "[[Aryan race]]" (a term which they believed had been used by the [[Proto-Indo-European people]]). The [[Thule Society]], which had close links to the ''Deutsche Arbeiter Partei'' (DAP), known later as the ''[[Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei]]'' (NSDAP or Nazi party) was, according to its own account, founded on August{{nbsp}}18, 1918.<ref>Goodrick-Clarke 1985, p. 144</ref> In his biography of [[Lanz von Liebenfels]] (1874&ndash;1954), ''Der Mann, der Hitler die Ideen gab'' (published in Munich, 1985; translated as ''The Man who Gave Hitler the Ideas''{{cite source|date=January 2019}}), the Viennese psychologist and author [[Wilfried Daim]] claimed that the Thule Gesellschaft name originated from mythical Thule. In his history of the [[Sturmabteilung|SA]] (''Mit ruhig festem Schritt'', 1998 – ''With Firm and Steady Step''), [[Wilfred von Oven]], [[Joseph Goebbels]]' press adjutant from 1943 to 1945, confirmed that Pytheas' Thule was the historical Thule for the ''Thule Gesellschaft''. Much of this fascination was due to rumours surrounding the ''[[Oera Linda Book]]'', falsely claimed to have been found by Cornelis over de Linden during the nineteenth century. The ''Oera Linda Book'' was translated into German in 1933 and was favored by [[Heinrich Himmler]]. The book has since been thoroughly discredited. Professor of [[Frisian languages|Frisian Language]] and Literature Goffe Jensma wrote that the three authors of the translation intended it "to be a temporary hoax to fool some nationalist Frisians and orthodox Christians and as an experiential exemplary exercise in reading the Holy Bible in a non-fundamentalist, symbolical way".<ref>{{Citation|title=How to Deal with Holy Books in an Age of Emerging Science. The Oera Linda Book as a New Age Bible|journal=Fabula|date=November 2007|first=Goffe|last=Jensma|volume=48|issue=3&ndash;4|pages=229&ndash;249|doi=10.1515/FABL.2007.017}}</ref> ==See also== {{div col|colwidth=15em}} * [[Agharta]] * [[Aristeas]] * [[The Island at the Top of the World|Astragard]] * [[Atlantis]] * [[Avalon]] * [[Baltia]] * [[Brittia]] * [[El Dorado]] * [[Iram of the Pillars]] * [[Mythical place]] * [[Phantom island]] * [[Shambhala]] * [[Utopia]] {{div col end}} ==References== {{Reflist|30em}} ==Bibliography== * {{cite book|title=Ultima Thule: Or, A Summer in Iceland|first=Richard F.|last=Burton|authorlink=Richard Francis Burton|publisher=W.P. Nimmo|location=London, Edinburgh|year=1875}} Downloadable Google Books. * {{cite journal|first=W.H.|last=Fotheringham|title=On the Thule of the Ancients|journal=Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland|volume=III|date=1862|pages=491–503 |url=http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-352-1/dissemination/pdf/vol_003/3_491_503.pdf |format=pdf}} * {{cite journal|first=Rolf|last=Gilberg|title=Thule|journal=Arctic|volume=29|issue=2|date=June 1976|pages=83–86|format=pfd|url=http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic29-2-83.pdf|accessdate=2008-10-30|doi=10.14430/arctic2793}} * [[Joanna Kavenna]], ''The Ice Museum: In Search of the Lost Land of Thule'', London, Penguin, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-14-101198-1}} * {{cite book|author=Pliny|authorlink=Pliny the Elder|others=Ajasson de Grandsagne (trans.)|title=Histoire naturelle de Pline: Traduction Nouvelle: Vol III|location=Paris|year=1829|publisher=C.L.F. Panckoucke|language=French|pages=337–338, notes on Book IV}} * {{cite book|author=Pliny|authorlink=Pliny the Elder |translator=[[John Bostock (physician)|John Bostock]] |translator2=[[Henry Thomas Riley]] |title=The Natural History of Pliny: Volume I|location=London, New York|year=1893|publisher=George Bell & Sons|pages=352, notes on Book IV}} * {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Thule}} ==External links== *[http://idolsofthecave.com/4-the-monstrous-sea-pig-featuring-allis-markham-part-1-nov-2014/ Site with detailed notes on the classical and Renaissance sources for Thule] {{Authority control}} [[Category:Geography of Europe]] [[Category:Geography of Greenland]] [[Category:Locations in Greek mythology]] [[Category:Mythological islands]] [[Category:Phantom islands of the Atlantic]] [[Category:Nazism and occultism]] [[Category:Greek mythology]]'