Thule (/ˈθ(j)uːliː/; Ancient Greek: Θούλη, romanized: Thúlē; Latin: Thūlē, also spelled Thylē) is the northernmost place (or possibly Hyperborea) mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman writings and maps. A Greek explorer named Pytheas first wrote about Thule around 320 BC. Later writers often described it as an island north of Ireland or Britain, even though Pytheas never clearly called it an island. Modern ideas suggest it could be places like Orkney, Shetland, northern Scotland, the Faroe Islands, or Iceland. Other possible locations include the island of Saaremaa in Estonia or the Norwegian island of Smøla.

In classical and medieval writings, "ultima Thule" (Latin for "farthest Thule") came to mean any distant place beyond the known world. By the Late Middle Ages and early modern times, Thule was often linked to real places like Iceland or Greenland. At times, "ultima Thule" was a name for Greenland, while Thule itself referred to Iceland. By the 19th century, Thule was sometimes connected to Norway, Denmark, all of Scandinavia, a large Scottish island, the Faroe Islands, or several of these places.

Thule was once the name of real places. In 1910, an explorer named Knud Rasmussen created a missionary and trading post in northwestern Greenland, naming it "Thule." This name later became associated with the northernmost United States Air Force base in Greenland, called Thule Air Base. When the base was transferred to the United States Space Force, its name changed to Pituffik Space Base on April 6, 2023.

Classical and medieval accounts

The Greek explorer Pytheas from the Greek city of Massalia (now Marseille, France) was the first to write about Thule after his travels between 330 and 320 BC. He mentioned visiting Thule in his now-lost work, On The Ocean (Ta peri tou Okeanou). L. Sprague de Camp wrote that "the city of Massalia… sent Pytheas to scout northern Europe to see where their trade-goods were coming from." Some descriptions of his discoveries have survived in the writings of later, often skeptical, authors.

Polybius, in his work The Histories (around 140 BC), Book XXXIV, cited Pytheas as someone who "led many people into error by saying he walked the entire length of Britain on foot, giving the island a circumference of 40,000 stadia, and also describing Thule, a place where there was no proper land, sea, or air, but a mix of all three, like the consistency of a jellyfish, where one could not walk or sail."

The first-century BC Greek astronomer Geminus of Rhodes claimed the name "Thule" came from an old word for the polar night phenomenon—"the place where the sun goes to rest." Dionysius Periegetes in De situ habitabilis orbis and Martianus Capella also discussed this. Avienius in Ora Maritima noted that in summer, nights on Thule lasted only two hours, a clear reference to the midnight sun.

Strabo, in his Geographica (around AD 30), mentioned Thule while describing Eratosthenes' calculation of "the breadth of the inhabited world" and noted that Pytheas said Thule was "a six-day sail north of Britain, and near the frozen sea." However, Strabo doubted this claim, writing that Pytheas "has been found, upon scrutiny, to be an arch falsifier, but the men who have seen Britain and Ireland do not mention Thule, though they speak of other islands, small ones, about Britain." Strabo later wrote, "Concerning Thule, our historical information is still more uncertain, on account of its outside position; for Thule, of all the countries that are named, is set farthest north." Strabo described the people of Thule in detail, citing Pytheas.

The mid-first-century Roman geographer Pomponius Mela placed Thule north of Scythia. In AD 77, Pliny the Elder wrote in Natural History that Thule was "a six-day sail north of Britain." He also described the islands around Britain, placing Thule along the most northerly parallel he described: "Last of all is the Scythian parallel, from the Rhiphean hills into Thule: wherein (as we said) it is day and night continually by turns (for six months)."

Cleomedes referenced Pytheas' journey to Thule but added no new information. The Roman poet Silius Italicus (AD 25–101) wrote that the people of Thule were painted blue: "the blue-painted native of Thule, when he fights, drives around the close-packed ranks in his scythe-bearing chariot," implying a link to the Picts (whose name comes from the Latin pictus, meaning "painted"). Martial (AD 40–104) and Claudian (AD 370–404) also wrote about "blue" or "painted Britons," similar to Julius Caesar's accounts.

The Roman historian Tacitus, in his book about his father-in-law Agricola, described how the Romans knew Britain was an island by circumnavigating it. He wrote of a Roman ship visiting Orkney and claiming the crew sighted Thule, though they were ordered not to explore it due to winter approaching. Some scholars believe Tacitus was referring to Shetland.

The third-century Latin grammarian Gaius Julius Solinus wrote in Polyhistor that "Thyle, which was distant from Orkney by a voyage of five days and nights, was fruitful and abundant in the lasting yield of its crops." The fourth-century Virgilian commentator Servius also believed Thule was near Orkney.

Other late classical writers, such as Orosius (384–420), described Thule as being north and west of both Ireland and Britain, strongly suggesting it was Iceland. Solinus (died AD 400) repeated these descriptions, noting that Thule's people grew crops and fruits.

In the early fifth century AD, Claudian wrote in his poem On the Fourth Consulship of the Emperor Honorius, Book VIII, that "the Orcades ran red with Saxon slaughter; Thule was warm with the blood of Picts; ice-bound Hibernia [Ireland] wept for the heaps of slain Scots." This implies Thule was Scotland. However, in Against Rufinias, Claudian wrote of "Thule lying icebound beneath the pole-star." Jordanes in Getica also wrote that Thule sat under the pole star.

In the writings of the historian Procopius (first half of the sixth century), Thule was a large island in the north inhabited by 13 tribes. It is believed Procopius was referring to a part of Scandinavia, as several tribes are easily identified, including the Geats (Gautoi) in present-day Sweden and the Sami people (Scrithiphini). He wrote that when the Herules returned, they passed the Warini and the Danes and crossed the sea to Thule, where they settled beside the Geats. Procopius's Thule is believed to be the same place as Scandza, as described by Jordanes. Procopius said its inhabitants were pagans who practiced human sacrifice.

According to Procopius, the sun does not rise for 40 days around the time of the winter solstice (equivalent to about 69° North) in Thule. After the solstice, the people of Thule send men to the mountaintops, and when they first see the sun above the horizon, they send word to the people in the valleys below. On hearing the news, the people of Thule celebrate their greatest festival.

In the early seventh century, Isidore of Seville wrote in his Etymologies that Thule was distinct from the islands of Britannia, Thanet (Tanatos), the Orkney (Orcades), and Ireland (Scotia or Hibernia). Isidore influenced Bede, who later mentioned Thule. The Irish monk Dicuil, in his Liber De Mensura Orbis Terrae (written around 825), quoted classical sources describing Thule.

A map of the world voyage by Sir Francis Drake in 1577–1580 shows Thule (Tile/Tule) as likely modern Iceland near Greenland.

The British surveyor Charles Vallancey (1731–1812) argued that Ireland was Thule in his book An essay on the antiquity of the Irish language. Scottish historian W.F. Skene identified Thule as the Kintyre peninsula in 1876 based on Solinus' description.

Another hypothesis, proposed by Lennart Meri in 1976, suggests the Estonian island of Saaremaa (often called Ösel) could be Thule. This is due to a phonological similarity between "Thule" and the Eston

Namesakes

In 1775, during his second trip, Captain Cook named an island in the far southern part of the South Atlantic Ocean "Southern Thule." Today, the name refers to the three southernmost islands in the South Sandwich Islands, one of which is called Thule Island. These islands became a British overseas territory, but Argentina also claimed them (called them "Islas Tule del Sur" in Spanish).

The Southern Thule islands were taken over by Argentina in 1976. The British did not fight to take them back until the 1982 Falklands War, when Royal Marines helped restore British control. The islands are now empty and have no permanent residents.

In 1910, the explorer Knud Rasmussen created a missionary and trading post in North Star Bay, northwest Greenland, and named it Thule. The Thule people, who were ancestors of modern Inuit Greenlanders, were named after this region. In 1953, the United States Air Force built Thule Air Base at North Star Bay. The local Greenlandic residents were forced to move to a new location called New Thule (Qaanaaq), 110 kilometers (67 miles) to the north (76°31′50.21″N 68°42′36.13″W / 76.5306139°N 68.7100361°W), which is only 840 nautical miles from the North Pole.

In Scottish Gaelic, the word for Iceland is "Innis Tile," which means "Isle of Thule."

The name "Thule" is also used for the 69th element in the periodic table, thulium.

In Kentucky, United States, a location in the Mammoth Cave system is called "Ultima Thule." It was once the farthest known point of the "Main Cave" passage before discoveries in 1908 by Ed Bishop and Max Kaemper revealed new areas beyond it, now accessible through the Violet City Entrance. The Violet City Lantern tour at the cave includes a stop near Ultima Thule at the end of the route.

In March 2018, after a naming contest, the Kuiper belt object 486958 Arrokoth, a target for the NASA probe New Horizons, was nicknamed "Ultima Thule." A spacecraft visited the object on January 1, 2019, marking the farthest distance a spacecraft has traveled to explore a planetary body. The International Astronomical Union later assigned an official name to the object.

Literary references

Pytheas did not describe Thule as an island, according to Strabo's writings (2.5.8).

In a symbolic sense, meaning a distant place or an unreachable goal, the Roman poet Virgil used the term "Ultima Thule" in his work Georgics (1.30) to refer to the farthest point of Thule.

Seneca the Younger wrote about a time when lands beyond Thule would be discovered. This idea was later used to describe the voyages of Christopher Columbus.

A Greek prose work titled The Wonders Beyond Thule, written by Antonius Diogenes around AD 150 or earlier, described lands beyond Thule. Gerald N. Sandy noted in his translation of a ninth-century summary of the work that this Thule most closely matches Iceland.

During the time of European exploration, the known world was thought to extend east to India and west to Thule, as described in The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius. He wrote, "Though the earth trembles before your laws as far as India's shore, and though Thule bows to your service on the farthest edges of the world, if you cannot drive away sorrow or silence complaints, then true power is not yours."

By the Late Middle Ages, scholars connected Iceland and Greenland to the name Thule, as well as places mentioned by the Irish sailor Saint Brendan in the 6th century and other mythical lands like Hy Brasil and Cockaigne. These scholars, including Dicuil, the Venerable Bede, the Landnámabók, the Historia Norwegie, and Adam of Bremen, noted that other islands existed north of Britain.

In the 12th century, Eustathius of Thessalonica wrote in his commentary on the Iliad that the people of Thule were at war with a tribe of extremely short individuals, only 20 fingers tall. Charles Anthon, a 19th-century scholar, suggested this might have been based on real people, such as a small group in Britain.

In the 14th century, Petrarch wrote in his Epistolae familiares that Thule was located in the unknown northern regions.

A madrigal titled Thule by Thomas Weelkes (1600) mentioned the Icelandic volcano Hekla.

The English poet Ambrose Philips began a poem titled The Fable of Thule in 1748 but did not complete it.

Goethe's poem Der König in Thule (1774) later appeared in Faust I. The poem's references to a King and Kingdom of Thule have no historical basis. The poem was set to music by Franz Schubert, Franz Liszt, and Robert Schumann. The phrase "Ultima Thule" also appeared in a 1880 collection of poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

In his 1844 poem Dream-Land, Edgar Allan Poe wrote:

John Henry Wilbrandt Stuckenberg wrote about Thule in his 1885 book The Final Science: or Spiritual Materialism.

In 1899, Kelly Miller, speaking to the Hampton Alumni Association, said, "Civilization may be defined as the sum total of influences and agencies that make for knowledge and virtue. This is the goal, the ultima Thule, of all human efforts."

The 1929 novel Ultima Thule by Henry Handel Richardson is set in colonial Australia.

In Prince Valiant, Hal Foster's story features a character named after Aguar, the exiled king of Thule. Foster placed the kingdom of Thule on the Norwegian mainland near Trondheim.

"Ultima Thule" is the title of a short story by Vladimir Nabokov, published in The New Yorker in 1973.

In The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco refers to "Ultima Thule" as a place connected to an illuminated manuscript.

Jorge Luis Borges used the phrase "ultima Thule" in his poem A Reader to link his early study of Latin to his later reading of the Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson.

Bernard Cornwell mentions Thule in The Lords of the North, the third book in The Last Kingdom series. The character Uhtred of Bebbanburg calls it "that strange land of ice and flame."

Thule is mentioned in the comic Asterix and the Chieftain's Daughter.

Cassandra Clare's The Shadowhunter Chronicles includes an alternate dimension called Thule.

In Sue Burke's sci-fi novel Dual Memory, Thule is an artificial polar island.

In Christopher Paolini's sci-fi novel To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, Thule is a mild deity oath. Paolini explains that Thule became known as the god of the spacers or "the Lord of Empty Spaces" and is derived from "ultima Thule."

In Nazi ideology

Some people who followed ariosophy in early 20th-century Germany believed in a mythical place called Thule, or Hyperborea, as the ancient home of the "Aryan race" (a term they thought was used by a group of people called Proto-Indo-Europeans). The Thule Society (Thule Gesellschaft), which had close connections to the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP), an earlier group that became the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), was, according to its own records, created on August 18, 1918.

In a book about Lanz von Liebenfels (1874–1954), titled Der Mann, der Hitler die Ideen gab (published in Munich, 1985; translated as The Man who Gave Hitler the Ideas), the Austrian psychologist and writer Wilfried Daim explained that the name "Thule Gesellschaft" came from the mythical land of Thule. In his book about the SA, Mit ruhig festem Schritt (1998; translated as With Firm and Steady Step), Wilfred von Oven, who worked as Joseph Goebbels’ press officer from 1943 to 1945, stated that the Thule Society considered the ancient place called Thule by the Greek writer Pytheas to be its historical inspiration.

Interest in Thule was partly caused by rumors about the Oera Linda Book, which was said to have been discovered by Cornelis over de Linden in the 19th century. The Oera Linda Book was translated into German in 1933 by Herman Wirth and was supported by Heinrich Himmler. However, the book is now considered unreliable. Professor Goffe Jensma, who studies the Frisian language and literature, wrote that the three people who translated the book intended it "to be a temporary trick to mislead some nationalist Frisians and orthodox Christians, and as a practice in reading the Holy Bible in a non-fundamentalist, symbolic way."