Septentrionalium Terrarum Descriptio

Polus Arcticus

Contemporary misconceptions of the North Pole largely stemmed from the writings of a Franciscan friar from Oxford who travelled the North Atlantic region in the early 1360s. His now-lost travelogue, Inventio Fortunata, contained a description of the North Pole as a magnetic island (Rupes Nigra - a 33-mile wide black rock) surrounded by a giant whirlpool and four continents. Between these Arctic land masses ocean waters rushed northwards and descended into the Earth at the pole.

Here live Pygmies, at most 4 feet tall, who are like those called Scraelings in Greenland.

This strait has 5 mouths and because of the narrowness and speed of the rivers it is never frozen.

This channel has 3 mouths as entryways, and it remains frozen for about 3 months each year. It has a latitude of 37 leagues.

The ocean is broken up into 19 mouths with islands between them, making 4 channels. Through these, the ocean is carried unceasingly underneath the northern region, and there it is absorbed into the bowels of the earth. The rocky landmass underneath the pole has a circumference of about 33 leagues.

In the northern parts of Bargu there are islands, says Marco Polo the Venetian (Book 1, Chapter 51), which lie so far north that the Arctic pole seems to be south of them.

This island is the best and healthiest of the whole northern region.

Willoughby's Land

During his 1553 voyage across the Barents Sea, English explorer Hugh Willoughby reported islands to the north. While these two islands were either a mirage or a real sighting of Novaya Zemlya, they were subsequently depicted and named "Willoughby's Land" and "Macsinof Island" on many 16th century maps.

Frisland

This famous phantom island appears to have been born out of the confusion between an imaginary island and the actual southern part of Greenland/Iceland. After its first charting on the influential Zeno map of 1558, Frisland continued to appear on maps for the next 100 years. Other nearby phantom islands include Podalida and Neome.

Magnetic north pole

Although many believed the rock at the North Pole to be magnetic, Mercator preferred to place a magnetic rock near the Strait of Anian, in an attempt to explain magnetic variation. Two poles are proposed, the first with respect to a meridian through the Cape Verde islands, and an alternative pole with respect to a meridian through the island of Corvo (Azores).

Strait of Anian

The Strait of Anian was a semi-mythical strait, documented from around 1560, that was believed by early modern cartographers to mark the boundary between North America and Asia and to permit access to a Northwest Passage from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific. The true strait was discovered in 1728 and became known as the Bering Strait.

Gog and Magog

Ung, which we call Gog. Gog and Magog are, respectively, the names of a mysterious Biblical land and its people, who feature in apocalyptic prophecy. By the time of the Roman period the Magog were also associated with the Mongols or Tartars. The legendary Gates of Alexander were thought to be erected by Alexander the Great to repel this tribe.

Tubicines aerei

According to Mercator, at this place, on a mountain, are set two flute-players/trumpeters in bronze who probably were put here by the Tartars as an everlasting memorial of the attainment of their freedom at the place at which, by crossing some very high mountains, they entered countries where they found greater safety. According to Marco Polo's account, the trumpeters are a reference to the statues left by Alexander the Great in front of the land of Gog and Magog to prevent them from coming to do evil.

Frobisher's Strait

Frobisher was the first Englishman to set off in search of the Northwest Passage. With the backing of the Muscovy Company, Frobisher ventured north three times between 1576 and 1578. His discovery of Frobisher's Strait (now Bay) into Baffin Island in 1576 was believed to be the entrance to the Northwest Passage. Cartographers mistakenly placed the Strait through the south of Greenland with the mis-location persisting for two more centuries.

Davis Strait

John Davis was the second Englishman to sail for the Northwest Passage. He left in 1585 and explored what is now known as Cumberland Sound and is written here as E. Cumberlands Isles. He did not find the passage but left his mark on the area with the Davis Strait. The furious over fall annotation refers to where Davis' ship, Ellen, had been driven by a gale into waters that were 'whirling and roring, as it were the meeting of tides'.

Sandersons Hope

In 1587, John Davis reached a high latitude of 72° 12' N along the west coast of Greenland, naming a 1,042 m-high mountain Sanderson's Hope after their sponsor.

California

California region known to the Spanish by hearsay only.

Baja California was discovered by the Spanish in 1533, yet its northerly location here by Mercator is unusual. The name California comes from a 1510 Spanish novel by Montalvo, described as an island west of the Indies populated only by Amazon warriors. The name was subsequently given to the Baja California peninsula following its discovery by Fortún Ximénez, in the mistaken assumption of it being an island.

Lago de Conibaz

This large lake with an outlet into the Arctic has been associated with Hudson Bay, Great Salt Lake, Lake Ontario, and the Great Lakes in general, and suggests European cartographers had some sense of the great inland lakes of North America long before their official discovery.

Here is the sea of sweet waters, of which, according to the report of the inhabitants of Saguenai, the Canadians say that the limits are unknown.

This body of water appears as an uncanny prediction of Hudson Bay, including Southampton Island at its outlet. Its official discovery was made 15 years later in 1610.

Several ancients (Strabo, the poet Dionysius, Pliny, Solinus and Pomponius Mela) believed that the Caspian Sea opened out into this gulf.

Lytarmis, according to Pliny, the first promontory of Celtica.

Tazata Island which is mentioned by Pliny. A possible representation of the Taimyr Peninsula.

Zolotaia baba

The Golden Woman is a legendary idol and item of worship for the indigenous peoples of Northeastern Europe/Northwestern Siberia (Yugra/Yura). Giles Fletcher (1591) wrote that near the mouth of Ob River there is a rock of shape resembling a ragged woman bearing a child in her hands, and Obdorian Samoyeds use it in their pagan sorcery.

Samogeds, that is the people who devour each other.

t'Nieulant

Not long after Mercator first published this map in 1595, Dutch explorer Willem Barents discovered Spitsbergen in 1596. Hondius, who subsequently acquired the plates, erased part of the Arctic land mass to make way for a depiction of Spitsbergen in this 1628 edition.

Nova Zembla

The Dutch explorer Willem Barents discovered Novaya Zemlya in 1594 during his first of three attempts to find the Northeast Passage. On his third voyage, Barents managed to navigate further round the northern tip, but heavy sea-ice conditions led to their ship becoming stuck. Barents and his crew were forced to overwinter here, where they built a lodge they called Het Behouden Huys (The Saved House). The redrawn coastline of this island in this 1628 edition reflects these discoveries.

Groclant

According to Mercator's 1569 World Map, the inhabitants of Groclant are Swedes by origin. This mysterious island, which does not appear on the legendary Zeno map, is possibly Baffin Island, which was sighted in 1576 by Englishman Martin Frobisher.

Shetland

Shetland lies 170 km north of the Scottish mainland. The islands switched from Norwegian to Scottish rule in 1472.

Faroe Islands

The Faroe islands lie roughly halfway between Norway and Iceland, and today is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Between 1035 and 1814 the Faroes were part of the Kingdom of Norway.

Witsarc

Referred to in 1548 by Hieronymus Gourmont as a lofty mountain, on the summit of which a sea-mark was set by two pirates, Pinnigt and Pothorst, to warn seamen against Greenland.

Alba & St Thomas

The Zeno account of Greenland describes a remarkable city called Alba, where there was a cloister and a church dedicated to St Thomas at the base of a volcano. By means of pipes, hot water from a spring was conducted into all the chambers of the building, as well as the garden, thus yielding the most delightful fruits and flowers.

Skrelingers

Skræling was the medieval Norse term for the Native peoples of Greenland and the Arctic. The word is believed to derive from a word for skin, perhaps inspired by the Native peoples’ characteristic animal-skin clothing. It has also been suggested that Skræling was a Norse translation of pygmies, a term known to educated Norsemen from their reading of Classical writers, particularly Pliny the Elder's Natural History. Besides conveying small stature, the expression connoted inferiority such as feebleness and demonstrable "otherness"; like everyone else at the time, the Norse considered themselves the desirable standard by which to judge other people.

Obila river

Possibly an interpretation of the Mackenzie River. Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie travelled the river in the hope it would lead to the Pacific Ocean, but instead reached its mouth on the Arctic Ocean on 14 July 1789.

Hecla

Hekla, the Gateway to Hell, is Iceland's most active volcano. Over 20 eruptions have occurred here since 874.

Camenoy poyas mons

A mountain range likely to be an interpretation of the Riphean Mountains mentioned by Classical authors and assigned to the Ural Mountains by Pliny the Elder.

Oceanus Scythicus

Also referred to as the Mare Glaciale/Mare Tabin. It is now called the Kara Sea.

Inhabitants of the Bargu plain are called Mecriti - one of the four main tribes of the Mongol nation.

Alchai mons

The Altai (Altay) Mountains, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan come together.

Imaus mons

An ancient name for the Central Asian complex of mountain ranges comprising the present Hindu Kush, Pamir and Tian Shan.

St Michael

Present-day Arkhangelsk. The arms of the city display the Archangel Michael in the act of defeating the Devil. Legend states that this victory took place near where the city stands, hence its name, and that Michael still stands watch over the city to prevent the Devil's return.

Fretum Nassovium

The (Nassau) Kara Strait, connecting the Barents and Kara seas south of Novaya Zemlya.

Iuhra

Yugra or Iuhra was a collective name for lands and peoples between the Pechora River and Ural mountains. The 12th century missionary Abu Hamid al-Gharnati described this region: But beyond Wisu by the Sea of Darkness there lies a land known by the name of Yura. In summers the days are very long there, so that the Sun does not set for forty days, as the merchants say; but in winters the nights are equally long.

Tabin promontorium Plinio

Cape Tabin according to Pliny

The present Cape Chelyuskin, the northernmost cape in Asia. Pliny imagined the extent of Asia must end somewhere, and so envisioned a great peninsula (Tabin) at the end of the Earth. The cape was first reached in 1742 by Semion Chelyuskin.