ULTIMA THULE;
OR,
A SUMMER IN ICELAND.
INTRODUCTION.
SECTION I. OF THULE.
But is Iceland “Ultima Thule?”
The author hopes to make it evident that “Thule” was used according to date in five several senses—a sufficient reason for the confusion which has so long invested the subject. It has been well remarked that no place is more often mentioned by the ancients than the “island hid from us by snow and winter;” and yet, that no position is more controverted.[1] There has been a “King of Thule,” and now there is a “Princess of Thule,”—but where and what is “Thule?”
It will take some time to clear up the darkness which has been heaped by a host of writers upon “Thule,” and we will begin by distributing the debated word.
Firstly, It was attributed poetically, rhetorically, and per synecdochen, to the northern “period of cosmographie,” and to its people, real or supposed.
Secondly, It was applied to Iceland, and to Iceland only, from the earliest ages of its exploration.
Thirdly, In the centuries when imperial Rome extended her sceptre to the north of “the Britains;” it was given to the outlying parts, Ireland, Scotland, the Orkneys, the Shetlands, and features known only to fabulous geography.