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Thule or Tile is in classic sources a place, usually an island, in the far north, often Scandinavia or — in the Baltic Sea — Saaremaa. Ultima Thule in medieval geographies may also denote any distant place located beyond the "borders of the known world".
Procopius
In Procopius, Thule was a large island in the north inhabited by 25 tribes. It is believed to have been a part of Scandinavia since several tribes are easily identified, such as the Geats (Gautoi) and the Saami (Scrithiphini). He also wrote that when the Heruls returned, they passed the Varni and the Danes and then crossed the sea to Thule, where they settled beside the Geats.
Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, the name was sometimes used to denote Greenland, Svalbard or Iceland, such as by Bremen's Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church, where he probably cites old writers' usage of Thule.
An anonymous poem [1], titled Thule printed between 1599 and 1610 describes it thus:
Thule, the period of cosmography,
Doth vaunt of Hecla, whose sulphureous fire
Doth melt the frozen clime and thaw the sky;
Trinacrian Etna's flames ascend not higher.
These things seem wondrous, yet more wondrous I,
Whose heart with fear doth freeze, with love doth fry.
The Andalusian merchant, that returns
Laden with cochineal and China dishes,
Reports in Spain how strangely Fogo burns
Amidst an ocean full of flying fishes.
These things seem wondrous, yet more wondrous I,
Whose heart with fear doth freeze, with love doth fry.
Modern use
A municipality in North Greenland was formerly named Thule after the mythical place. The Thule People, a paleo-Eskimo culture and a predecessor of modern Inuit Greenlanders, was named after the Thule region. In 1953, Thule became Thule Air Base, operated by United States Air Force. The population was forced to resettle to Qaanaaq, 67 miles to the north. Hunting activities here are described in the January 2006 National Geographic. (76 31'50.21"N, 68 42'36.13"W only 840 NM from the North Pole)
Southern Thule is a collection of the three southernmost islands in the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. The island group is overseas territory of the United Kingdom and uninhabited.
"Aryan Thule"
Nazi mystics believed in historical Thule/Hyperborea as the ancient origin of the Aryan race. According to its emblem, the Thule Society was founded in 1919. It had close links to the Deutsche Arbeiter Partei (DAP), later the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP). One of its three founder members was Lanz von Liebenfels (1874-1954). In his biography of Liebenfels ("Der Mann, der Hitler die Ideen gab", Munich 1985), the Viennese psychologist and author Dr Wilhelm Dahm wrote: "The Thule Gesellschaft name originated from mythical Thule, a Nordic equivalent of the vanished culture of Atlantis. A race of giant supermen lived in Thule, linked into the Cosmos through magical powers. They had psychic and technological energies far exceeding the technical achievements of the 20th century. This knowledge was to be put to use to save the Fatherland and create a new race of Nordic Aryan Atlanteans. A new Messiah would come forward to lead the people to this goal."
References in popular culture
- Ultima Thule is the name of a Swedish rock band and the name of an Estonian rock band.
- Ultima Thule is the name of a 1971 single by the German electronic band Tangerine Dream.
- British "epic barbarian war metal" band Bal-Sagoth recorded an album entitled Starfire upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule in 1996.
- Thule is a company that manufactures Roof Boxes, Cycle & Ski Carriers etc.
- In the comic strip Prince Valiant, the title character is said to be the "Prince of Thule".
- In the Spanish comic strip Capitán Trueno, the girlfriend of the protagonist is a Viking princess born in Thule.
- Vladimir Nabokov worked on a story entitled Ultima Thule, aspects of which eventually came to be essential parts of his novel Pale Fire.
- In a poem Dream-Land by Edgar Allan Poe, protagonist (poet) comes "from an ultimate dim Thule"; also in Poe's "The Pit and The Pendulum", referencing the pit as "typical of hell, and regarded by rumor as the Ultima Thule of all their punishments."
- British punk band The Fall are sometimes referred to as "The Thule Group", derived from the lyrics of their 1985 track "Gut of the Quantifier".
References
- ^ P. J. Kavanagh; James Michie (2003). The Oxford Book of Short Poems, 1st Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280410-3.
See also