Editing Thule (section)

==Classical and medieval accounts==
The [[Greeks|Greek]] explorer [[Pytheas]] of the Greek city 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 literary work|lost work]], ''On The Ocean'' Τὰ περὶ τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦa (''Ta peri tou Okeanou''). [[L. Sprague de Camp]] wrote that "the city of Massalia... sent Pytheas to scout northern Europe 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 work ''[[The Histories (Polybius)|The 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. [https://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> [[Avienius]] 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>[https://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: <blockquote>"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>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2E1*.html Book II, Chapter 5]</ref></blockquote> Strabo ultimately concludes,<ref name="strabo iv">[https://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): <blockquote>"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></blockquote>

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: <blockquote>"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."</blockquote> 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>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/holland/pliny6.html Book VI, Chapter 34].</ref>

[[Cleomedes]] referenced Pytheas' journey to Thule, but added no new information.<ref>Whitaker, p. 56.</ref>

The Roman poet [[Silius Italicus]] (AD 25 – 101) 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= https://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>

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 Orkney 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, [https://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 fourth-century Virgilian commentator [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]] also believed that Thule sat close to Orkney: <blockquote>"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></blockquote>

Other late classical writers such as [[Orosius]] (384–420) describe Thule as being north and west of both Ireland and Britain, strongly suggesting that it was Iceland.

[[Gaius Julius Solinus|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|year=1498|publisher=Rosso, Giovanni|url=https://archive.org/details/ita-bnc-in1-00000525-001}} Ch. XXXIV</ref>

Early in the fifth century AD [[Claudian]], in his poem, ''On the Fourth Consulship of the Emperor Honorius'', [https://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 [https://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>

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 13 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. Procopius's Thule is believed to be the same place as [[Scandza]], as described by [[Jordanes]]. Procopius says its inhabitants are pagans who practice human sacrifice.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Van Nuffelen  |first1=Peter |title=Historiography and Space in Late Antiquity |date=2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=48}}</ref> According to Procopius, the sun doesn't rise for forty days around the time of the winter solstice in Thule. After the winter solstice, the people of Thule send men to the mountaintops, and when they first glimpse the sun above the horizon, they send word to the people in the valleys below. On hearing the good news, the people of Thule then celebrate their greatest festival.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gunnell |first1=Terry |title=The Season of the Dísir: The Winter Nights and the Dísarblót in Early Scandinavian Belief |journal=Cosmos: The Journal of the Traditional Cosmology Society |date=2005 |volume=16 |page=121-122}}</ref>

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|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 Orkney (''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|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.

The Irish monk [[Dicuil]] in his "Liber De Mensura Orbis Terrae" (written circa 825) after quoting various classical sources describing Thule, says <blockquote>"It is now thirty years since clerics, who had lived on the island from the first of February to the first of August, told me that not only at the summer solstice, but in the days round about it, the sun setting in the evening hides itself as though behind a small hill in such a way that there was no darkness in that very small space of time, and a man could do whatever he wished as though the sun were there, even remove lice from his shirt, and if they had been on a mountain-top perhaps the sun would never have been hidden from them. In the middle of that moment of time it is midnight at the equator, and thus, on the contrary, I think that at the winter solstice and for a few days about it dawn appears only for the smallest space at Thule, when it is noon at the equator. Therefore those authors are wrong and give wrong information, who have written that the sea will be solid about Thule, and that day without night continues right through from the vernal to the autumnal equinox, and that vice versa night continues uninterrupted from the autumnal to the vernal equinox, since these men voyaged at the natural time of great cold, and entered the island and remaining on it had day and night alternately except for the period of the solstice. But one day's sail north of that they did find the sea frozen over. There are many other islands in the ocean to the north of Britain which can be reached from the northern islands of Britain in a direct voyage of two days and nights with sails filled with a continuously favourable wind. A devout priest told me that in two summer days and the intervening night he sailed in a two-benched boat and entered one of them. There is another set of small islands, nearly all separated by narrow stretches of water; in these for nearly a hundred years hermits sailing from our country, Ireland, have lived. But just as they were always deserted from the beginning of the world, so now because of the Northman pirates they are emptied of anchorites, and filled with countless sheep and very many diverse kinds of sea-birds. I have never found these islands mentioned in the authorities".</blockquote>

===Modern research===
A map of the world voyage done by Sir Francis Drake in 1577–1580 shows  Thule (Tile/Tule) as what is likely modern Iceland near Greenland.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3201s.rb000011/?r=0.419,0.199,0.182,0.272,0 | title=La herdike enterprinse faict par le Signeur Draeck d'Avoir cirquit toute la Terre | website=[[Library of Congress]] | date=1581 }}</ref>

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> Scottish historian [[W.F. Skene]] identified Thule as [[Kintyre]] peninsula in 1876 based upon a description given by Solinus.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Skene |first1=W.F. |title=Celtic Scotland Vol.1 |date=1971 |publisher=Books For Libraries Press |page=40}}</ref>

Another hypothesis, first proposed by [[Lennart Meri]] in 1976, holds that the island of [[Saaremaa]] (which is often known by the [[exonym]] Ösel) 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 [[Volcanic crater lake|crater lake]] named [[Kaali crater|Kaali]] on the island appears to have been formed by a [[meteor strike]] in prehistory.<ref name="Raamat: Saaremaa ongi Ultima Thule"/><ref name="err.ee"/><ref name="Silverwhite">{{cite book
 | author = Lennart Meri
 | year = 1976
 | title = Hõbevalge (Silverwhite)
 | publisher = Eesti Raamat
 | location = [[Tallinn]], [[Estonia]]
 | title-link =Silverwhite
 | author-link =Lennart Meri
 }}</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".

Nazi Germany leadership considered Iceland to be the Thule area and the birthplace of the ancient [[Aryan race]], with senior Nazi leader [[Heinrich Himmler]] even sending [[Bruno Schweizer|an expedition team]] to Iceland in 1938 with hopes of finding a temple for Nordic gods like [[Thor]] and [[Odin]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/archaeology/nazi-archaeology.htm|title=What did the Nazis have to do with archaeology?|first=Charles W.|last=Bryant|publisher=How Stuff Works|date=April 16, 2024|accessdate=November 19, 2024}}</ref> 

In 2010, scientists from the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation Science at [[Technische Universität 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/>