Thule

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Thule (, TH(Y)OO-lee; Ancient Greek: Θούλη, romanized: Thúlē; Latin: Thūlē also spelled as Thylē) is the most northerly location (if not Hyperborea) mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman literature and cartography. First written of by the Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia (modern-day Marseille, France) in about 320 BC, it was often described by later writers as an island north of Ireland or Britain, despite that Pytheas never explicitly described it as an island. Modern interpretations have included Orkney, Shetland, Northern Scotland, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland. Other potential locations are the island of Saaremaa in Estonia, or 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". By the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period, the Greco-Roman Thule was often identified with the real Iceland or Greenland. Sometimes Ultima Thule...

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