Frisland
It was, and is, so common to use “land” as a final syllable for island names (witness Iceland, Shetland, and the rest) that “Ferisland” would easily be derived from the form of the name last given and would be as readily contracted into “Frisland.” We find the latter (Frislanda), indeed, on the map of Cantino (1502)[233] and in the life of Columbus ascribed to his son Ferdinand.[234] There seems no doubt of its very early use for a northern island or islands; apparently primarily for the Faroe group, often blended as one island.
But there seems to have been some confusion in men’s minds between Iceland and Frisland as northern fishing centers and neighbors of like conditions. Thus the portolan atlas known as Egerton MS. 2803, contains two maps[235] (one shown in [Fig. 8]) naming Iceland “Fislanda,” and the notable Catalan map of about 1480[236] ([Fig. 7]), first copied by Nordenskiöld, which shows Greenland as an elongated rectangular “Illa Verde” and Brazil in the place later given to Estotiland, also depicts a large insular “Fixlanda,” which is surely Iceland, if any faith may be put in general outline and the arrangement of islets offshore. Prunes (1553; [Fig. 12]) substantially reproduces it, with the same name and apparently the same meaning. Zeno ([Fig. 19]) follows him closely in area and aspect but draws also an elongated Iceland to the northward, the latter island trending southwestward in imitation of Greenland and seeming to derive its geography therefrom. This version of Iceland was probably suggested by one of the Nicolaus Germanus maps above referred to.
Thus Zeno has two great islands, Frisland and Iceland, the former being several times larger than Shetland and many times larger than Orkney. His Frisland gets its name from the Faroes, its area and outline from Iceland; it is located south of Iceland, where there never was anything but waste water. No such large island, distinct from Iceland, ever existed at the north. Certainly, as shown, it is a mythical island indeed.
Major stoutly argued that any derelictions of the map are to be explained as the defects of age and rottenness, unskillfully cobbled by a later hand. This sounds reasonable to one who has seen how the changes of time deface these old memorials and how easily outlines and much more may be misread. But in point of fact the map as we have it answers to the narrative singularly well. Any blurs or lacunae which needed restoration must have occurred in very fortunate places. Iceland, Shetland, Greenland, Scotland, Estotiland, and Drogio are all not very far from where they should be. The Orkneys and Fair Island, if too far west in fact, are only far enough to suit the tale, for when Antonio sails eastward he comes to them and knows he has passed east of Iceland, a reflection more likely to occur if the interval were rather small than if it were very great.