North
In the sixteenth century, as Europeans began to colonise and exploit the world and seek a trade route through the Arctic, new descriptions challenged the imagined picture of the North but also drew on old ideas.
Map of Iceland in Theatrum orbis terrarum (Theatre of the world)
Abraham Ortelius, 1592 (First edition published 1570).
This was the first modern world atlas, compiled by Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598) in Antwerp. Essential for those involved in the colonial exploitation of the world, it detailed countries, seas and trade routes. It was said to be the most expensive book of its time, but it was still a best-seller. Ortelius had a network of cartographers who travelled extensively and sent him the newest maps.
Danish cartographer Anders Sorensen Velleius drew the map of Iceland, but the placenames and features were the work of an Icelander, most likely Guðbrandur Þorláksson, an established geographer. The sea monsters and other fantastical elements largely derive from the works of Olaus Magnus: his map Carta marina (1539) and his book Description of the Northern Peoples (1555).
Watch the video below to see the labels from an English language edition of the atlas.
Rocks produced by Icelandic volcanoes including Hekla
Hekla, depicted on Ortelius’s map, is one of Iceland’s many volcanoes. Hekla has erupted dramatically several times, burying nearby settlements in ash or lava and poisoning livestock. It appeared as a central feature of Iceland in maps of the 16th and 17th centuries.
“Fire regularly erupts out of the ground, every seventh or fifth year, and without warning torches villages and all it finds in its path; nor may it be extinguished or turned back except with holy water blessed by the hand of a priest… in that fire, loud shrieks can be heard of souls tormented there.”
- William, Bishop of Orkney, quoted in the Lanercost Chronicle (1275).
The first settlers of Iceland attributed its volcanism to the mountain-dwelling Jǫtunn (giants) of Norse pagan beliefs. Later Hekla became associated with a Christian conception of hell: a fiery place where souls are tormented. To some people Hekla was a gateway to hell, perpetuating the image of the North as a dangerous supernatural region, while Icelandic writers – well used to volcanic phenomena and keen to counteract negative perceptions of Iceland – attempted to dispel these beliefs.
Vesicular basalt, a glassy rock formed from lava full of gas bubbles.
Tuff, formed from volcanic ash.
Pumice, formed from lava with gas bubbles which stretch as it cools rapidly forming a fibrous, porous texture.
Tuff, formed from layers of volcanic ash with some layers of basalt.
Monsters
Dogs of the sea from the Hortus sanitatis (1491), a text about medicine and the natural world.
Sketch of the ‘Stronsay Beast’, an alleged sea serpent which washed up in Orkney in 1808. It may have been the remains of a basking shark.
The map of Iceland in Ortelius's atlas shows seas swarming with monsters. These were largely inspired by the writings of the Swedish scholar Olaus Magnus (1490-1577), who did much to establish the monsters of the North.
Some of these Northern monsters are transplanted from the Mediterranean, taken from ancient Greek and Roman natural histories. Some originate from the idea that every creature on the land has a corresponding one in the sea. Others come from Scandinavian folk beliefs Olaus Magnus collected, such as the wicked whales and sea serpents.
“...a serpent of gigantic bulk, at least two hundred feet long, and twenty feet thick... It has hairs eighteen inches long hanging from its neck, sharp, black scales, and flaming-red eyes. It assaults ships, rearing itself on high like a pillar, seizes men, and devours them.”
- Olaus Magnus, Description of the Northern Peoples (1555).
Sea serpent in The natural history of Norway
Erik Pontoppidan, 1755
An Orcadian folktale collected in the 19th century tells of the slaying of the Stoor Worm, whose teeth become the islands around Scotland. Such tales of sea serpents probably derived from Jörmungandr or ‘the world serpent’ of Norse myth. Olaus Magnus claimed the creature lurked near Bergen, Norway. In this book Erik Pontoppidan (1698-1764), drawing on Magnus’s work, references recent sea serpent sightings around Norway and Greenland.
In the 19th century fossils of extinct animals like ichthyosaurs lent credence to the existence of sea monsters, and national newspapers reported sightings. This continued into the 20th century, such as the ‘Loch Ness monster’ in 1939 and the ‘Soay Beast’ in the Hebrides in 1959.
