Isidorus Hispalensis, before 636 A.D.
Thus while valuable information about the North is to be found in the early mediæval authors we have mentioned, this is not the case with the well-known Isidorus Hispalensis of Seville (ob. 636, as bishop of that city), who, however, exercised the greatest influence on the geographical ideas of the Middle Ages. His geographical knowledge was derived from late Latin authors, especially Orosius, Hieronymus and Solinus, and contributed nothing new of value. But as he was one of the most widely read authors of the early Middle Ages, he is of importance for having in that dark time continued the thread of the learning of antiquity, even though that thread was thin and weak. He was also to have an influence on cartography. With his fondness for bad etymological interpretations he derived the word “rotunditas,” for the roundness of the earth, from “rota,” wheel, and he taught that “the word ‘orbis’ is used on account of the roundness of the circumference, since it is like a wheel. For in every part the circumfluent ocean surrounds its borders in a circle.” Hence the conception of the earth’s disc as a wheel came to be general in the early Middle Ages, and hence the designation of wheel-maps. Isidore divided the earth’s disc into three parts, Asia (including Paradise) at the top of the wheel-map, and Europe and Africa, also called Lybia, at the bottom; and the boundaries between these continents formed a T with the rivers Tanais and Nile horizontally at the top, and the Mediterranean (“Mare Magnum”) below. Therefore maps of this type, which was maintained for a long time, are also called T-maps.[147] Otherwise Isidore declared clearly enough in favour of the spherical form of the earth.
Bede, 673-735
The Anglo-Saxon monk and scholar, Beda Venerabilis (673-735), who in his work “Liber de natura rerum” also mentions the countries of the earth, but without making any fresh statement about the North, was strongly influenced by Isidore. He asserts, however, the spherical form of the earth in an intelligent way, giving, amongst other reasons, that of the ancient Greeks, that earth and water are attracted towards a central point. The form of a sphere was also the only one that would explain why certain stars were visible in the north, but not in the south.
Europe on the reconstructed map of the world of the Ravenna geographer (after K. Miller)
The Ravenna geographer, seventh century
A few new facts about the North are to be found in the anonymous author who wrote a cosmography at the close of the seventh century. As, according to his own statement, he was born at Ravenna, he is usually known as the Ravenna geographer, but otherwise nothing is known of him, except that he was probably a priest. He bases his work on older authors; the Bible, some Latin, some Greek, and some later writers; but he certainly had a Roman itinerary map like the Tabula Peutingeriana. His statements about the North are in part taken from Jordanes, but he also quotes three other “Gothic scholars,” who are otherwise entirely unknown. One of them, Aithanarit (or Athanaric ?), is mentioned particularly in connection with the Skridfinns. The other two, Eldevaldus (or Eldebald ?) and Marcomirus (or Marcomeres ?), have also described western Europe; the latter is specially used in the description of the countries of the Danes, Saxons and Frisians.
The Ravenna geographer regarded the earth’s disc as approximately round, and surrounded by ocean, but the latter was not entirely continuous, for it did not extend behind India. It was true that some cosmographers had described it so, but no Christian ought to believe this, for Paradise was in the extreme East, near to India; and as the pollen is wafted by the breath of the wind from the male palm to the female near it, so does a beneficent perfume from Paradise blow upon the aromatic flowers of India. Some thought that the sun in its course returned to the east under the depths of ocean; but the Ravenna geographer agreed with those who said that the sun moved all night along paths which cannot be traced, behind lofty mountains, in the north beyond the ocean, and in the morning it came forth again from behind them.
[iv. 12.] “In a line with Scythia and the coast of the ocean is the country which is said to be that of the ‘Rerefeni’ and ‘Sirdifeni’ (‘Scirdifrini’). The people of this country, according to what the Gothic scholar Aithanarit says, dwell among the rocks of the mountains, and both men and women are said to live by hunting, and to be entirely unacquainted both with meat and wine. This land is said to be colder than all others. Farther on by the side of the Serdifenni on the coast of the ocean is the land which is called Dania; this land, as the above-mentioned Aithanaridus and Eldevaldus and Marcomirus, the Gothic scholars, say, produces people who are swifter than all others.” [These must be the Eruli.] “This Dania is now called the land of the Nordomanni.” This is the first time the name Norman is used, so far as is known.