Editing Thule

{{short description|Island mentioned in Ancient Greek and Roman literature}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}{{Use British English|date=January 2025}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Infobox fictional location
| name       = Thule
| 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       = Unidentified historical island
| locations  =
| people     =
}}

'''Thule''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|θ|j|uː|l|iː}}<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] second edition |title=Thule |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/201483 |access-date=18 November 2021| date=1989 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> {{langx|grc|Θούλη|Thúlē}}; {{langx|la|Thūlē}} also spelled as ''Thylē''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ampelius |first=Lucius |title=Liber Memorialis |year=c. 217 |pages=6}}</ref>) is the most northerly location mentioned in [[ancient Greek literature|ancient Greek]] and [[Latin literature|Roman]] literature and [[cartography]]. First written of by the Greek explorer [[Pytheas]] of [[Massalia]] (modern-day [[Marseille]], France) in about 320 BC, it was often described by later writers as an island north of [[Ireland]] or Britain. Modern interpretations have included [[Orkney]], [[Shetland]], [[Northern Scotland]], the [[Faroe Islands]], and [[Iceland]]. Other potential locations are the island of [[Saaremaa]] (Ösel) in Estonia,<ref name="Raamat: Saaremaa ongi Ultima Thule">{{Cite web | url=https://www.saartehaal.ee/2015/10/17/raamat-saaremaa-ongi-ultima-thule/ | title=Raamat: Saaremaa ongi Ultima Thule| work=Saarte Hääl| date=2015-10-16}}</ref><ref name="err.ee">{{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> or 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 [[Classics|classical]] and [[medieval literature]], '''''ultima Thule''''' (Latin "farthest Thule") acquired a [[metaphor]]ical 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/books?id=qu3jCQAAQBAJ&q=%22In+medieval+geography%2C+however%2C+Ultima+Thule+referred+to+any+far+away+place%22&pg=PA122|page=122|publisher=Channel View Publications|year=2015|isbn=9781845415235}}</ref> By the [[Late Middle Ages]] and the [[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. By the 19th century, however, ''Thule'' was frequently identified with Norway, Denmark, the whole of [[Scandinavia]], one of the larger [[List of islands of Scotland|Scottish islands]], the Faroes, or several of those locations.<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}}{{dead link|date=September 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</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|]], 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. ("M." stands 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|location=Paris|publisher=L'imprimerie de la république [etc.] an VI|orig-year=1798|year=1813|lccn=02007793}} 
The Thule reference is to be found here [https://books.google.com/books?id=pcdYAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA233 ''Vol 4 page 162'']
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>

Thule formerly gave its name to real places. In 1910, the explorer [[Knud Rasmussen]] established a missionary and trading post in north-western Greenland, which he named "Thule". It later gave its name to the northernmost [[United States Air Force]] base, Thule Air Base, in northwest Greenland. With the transfer of the base to the [[United States Space Force]], its name was changed to [[Pituffik Space Base]] on April 6, 2023.

==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/>

==Namesakes==
[[File:StampThule1935Michel3.jpg|right|thumb|A [[local stamp]] of Greenland 1936, inscribed ''Thule'']]

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''). 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 1910, the explorer [[Knud Rasmussen]] established a missionary and trading post, which he named [[Avannaa|Thule]] (Inuit: ''Avannaa'') on Greenland. The [[Thule people]], the predecessor of modern [[Inuit]] [[Greenlanders]], were named after the Thule region. In 1953, Avannaa 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.

In March 2018, following a naming competition, the [[Kuiper belt]] object [[486958 Arrokoth]], 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 has since been assigned by the [[International Astronomical Union]].<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|access-date=13 March 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5357552|title=Most distant world ever explored gets new name: Arrokoth|website=CBC|date=13 November 2019|access-date=13 November 2019}}</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 |access-date=2011-03-14 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710123344/http://quotes.dictionary.com/furthermost_thule_ultima_thule |archive-date=2011-07-10 }}</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 [https://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 [https://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.{{Citation needed|date=May 2016}}

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
 | year = 1989
 | title = Collected Ancient Greek Novels
 | 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.)

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| others=W. V. Cooper (trans.)| year = 1943| title = The Consolation of Philosophy| publisher = The Modern Library, Random House| location = New York}}</ref>

===Medieval and early modern literature===
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=https://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 which 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|url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070809082644/http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2268.html|archive-date=2007-08-09}}</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). The King and Kingdom of Thule referenced in the poem have no historical basis, nor did Goethe claim such. Goethe's poem was 
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: {{Blockquote|
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|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]].

[[Hal Foster]]'s protagonist [[Prince Valiant]] gets his title from being the son of Aguar, exiled king of Thule who has taken refuge in the [[The Fens|Fens]] during the days of [[King Arthur]]. Foster places this kingdom of Thule on the Norwegian mainland, near [[Trondheim]].

"Ultima Thule" is a short story written by author [[Vladimir Nabokov]] and published in ''New Yorker'' magazine on April 7, 1973.<ref>{{Cite magazine | url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1973/04/07/ultima-thule | title=Ultima Thule| magazine=The New Yorker| date=1973-03-31}}</ref>

Ultima Thule is mentioned in ''[[The Name of the Rose]]'' by [[Umberto Eco]] in reference to an illuminated manuscript that the narrator/character Adso sees when he explores the library labyrinth alone at the end of the third day. "I opened a richly illuminated volume that, by its style, seemed to me to come from the monasteries of Ultima Thule."<ref>[[Eco, Umberto]]. [[The Name of the Rose]]. Translated by William Weaver, First edition., Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983. p.240</ref>

[[Jorge Luis Borges]] uses the classic Latin phrase "ultima Thule" in his poem A Reader.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.poesi.as/jlb0726.htm|title = Un Lector}}</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".

Thule is mentioned in ''[[Asterix and the Chieftain's Daughter]]''.

[[Cassandra Clare]]'s ''[[The Shadowhunter Chronicles]]'', features an alternate dimension called Thule.

Thule is the name of an artificial polar island in [[Sue Burke]]'s sci-fi novel Dual Memory.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.tor.com/2023/06/01/book-review-dual-memory-by-sue-burke/ | title=Dual Memory Confirms Sue Burke as a Modern SFF Master | date=June 2023 }}</ref>

==In Nazi ideology==
Some followers of [[ariosophy]] in early 20th-century Germany hypothesized a historical Thule, or [[Hyperborea]], as the ancient origin of the "[[Aryan race]]" (a term which they believed had been used by the hypothetical [[Proto-Indo-European people]]). The [[Thule Society]] (''Thule Gesellschaft''), which had close links to the ''[[German Workers' Party|Deutsche Arbeiter Partei]]'' (DAP), the precursor organization to the ''[[Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei]]'' (NSDAP), was, according to its own account, founded on August{{nbsp}}18, 1918.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goodrick-Clarke |first1=Nicholas |title=THE OCCULT ROOTS OF NAZIS - Secret Aryan Cults and their Influence on Nazi Ideology |page=144 |date=1985 |url=https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/112375475/The_Occult_Roots_of_Nazism-libre.pdf?1710325090=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DThe_Occult_Roots_of_Nazism.pdf&Expires=1723680154&Signature=SrAf9-Lnmm7TAtCGZ6y3M8H1Q2-ZrNi29AssUn6NEm84vIQgBJcmbyCl6QQJy~y8bkPl-AxZuhr9Ks9bc~8I~Y4campXDnsr-RRXgQ0ojKQuM5tKt8dyzLz4UuEvLrCkTN3C41sGdeShlqlJOtEqDn4zGCKzigqbUnPgQ3NojcvW7mRsTsG7kzKomlByMgJ3P-6ywvux4IvIORI-IDM7~hyLJukt6BhvL~Umnlu5SuHyEeeVd4t5hC1h0etKg5dDOTmoWlTVGPAzqIAMTqKtv-PghUwfZYORt0mGdFA~PUAKVphzY6Uwnbdd1C4cSOM3XWNaneL8Vb3mNJ62SxVQ4w__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA}}</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''), the Viennese psychologist and author [[Wilfried Daim]] wrote 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 interest in Thule was initially due to rumours surrounding the ''[[Oera Linda Book]]'', claimed to have been found by Cornelis over de Linden in the 19th century. The ''Oera Linda Book'' was partially translated into German in 1933 by [[Herman Wirth]] and was favoured by [[Heinrich Himmler]]. The book has since been 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==

* [[Hyperborea]]
* [[Mythical place]]
* [[Phantom island]]
* [[Southern Thule]]
* [[Thule people]]
* [[Thule Society]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book|title=Ultima Thule: Or, A Summer in Iceland|url=https://archive.org/details/ultimathuleorsum01burt|first=Richard F.|last=Burton|author-link=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=https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-352-1/dissemination/pdf/vol_003/3_491_503.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|access-date=2008-10-30|doi=10.14430/arctic2793|archive-date=2011-05-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524145000/http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic29-2-83.pdf|url-status=dead}}
* [[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|author-link=Pliny the Elder|others=Ajasson de Grandsagne (trans.)|title=Histoire naturelle de Pline: Traduction Nouvelle: Vol III|url=https://archive.org/details/histoirenaturel04grangoog|location=Paris|year=1829|publisher=C.L.F. Panckoucke|language=fr|pages=[https://archive.org/details/histoirenaturel04grangoog/page/n347 337]–338, notes on Book IV}}
* {{cite book|author=Pliny|author-link=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==
*[https://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]
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[[Category:Thule| ]]
[[Category:Geography of Europe]]
[[Category:Geography of Greenland]]
[[Category:Mythological islands]]
[[Category:Phantom islands of the Atlantic Ocean]]
[[Category:Occultism in Nazism]]
[[Category:Locations in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek geography]]
[[Category:Lost places]]