Thule

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (Retd.)

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Location of Mann, Orkney, Shetland (Zetland) Isles

Thule is the most northerly location mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman literature and cartography. Thule was frequently identified with Norway.Modern interpretations have included Orkney, Shetland, northern Scotland, the island of Saaremaa (Ösel) in Estonia, and the Norwegian island of Smøla.

In classical and medieval literature, ultima Thule (Latin "farthest Thule") acquired a metaphorical meaning of any distant place located beyond the "borders of the known world".

Variants

• Thule(/ˈθjuːliː/ (Pliny.vi.39)
• Greek: Θούλη, translit. Thoúlē;
• Latin: Thūlē
• ultima Thule

Jat Gotras Namesake

• Tholia = Thule (Pliny.vi.39)

Mention by Pliny

Pliny mentions Division of the earth into parallels and shadows of equal length....The last of all is the Scythian parallel, which runs from the Riphæan range to Thule, in which, as we have already stated,¹ the year is divided into days and nights alternately, of six months' duration. The same authors have also placed before the first parallel, which we have here given,² two other parallels or circles; the first running through the island of Meroë and the city of Ptolemais which was built on the Red Sea for the chase of the elephant; where the longest day is twelve hours and a half in length; and the second passing through Syene in Egypt, in which the longest day is thirteen hours in length. The same authors have also added half an hour to each of the parallels, till they come to the last.

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1 B. iv. c. 26.

2 In p. 111.

Identification

By the Late Middle Ages and early modern period, the Greco-Roman Thule was often identified with the real Iceland or Greenland. Sometimes Ultima Thule was a Latin name for Greenland, when Thule was used for Iceland. By the late 19th century, however, Thule was frequently identified with Norway.

In 1910, the explorer Knud Rasmussen established a missionary and trading post in north-western Greenland, which he named "Thule" (later Qaanaaq).

Thule formerly gave its name to the northernmost United States Air Force base, Thule Air Base in northwest Greenland, but with the transfer of the base to the US Space Force the name was changed to Pituffik Space Base on April 6, 2023.