Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Icelandic Hemispherical World Maps
- 2 The Icelandic Zonal Map
- 3 The Two Maps from Viðey
- 4 Iceland in Europe
- 5 Forty Icelandic Priests and a Map of the World
- Conclusion
- Map Texts and Translations
- The Icelandic Hemispherical World Maps
- The Icelandic Zonal Map
- The Larger Viðey Map (Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar
- The Smaller Viðey Map
- Bibliography
- Index
- Studies in Old Norse Literature
2 - The Icelandic Zonal Map
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 October 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Icelandic Hemispherical World Maps
- 2 The Icelandic Zonal Map
- 3 The Two Maps from Viðey
- 4 Iceland in Europe
- 5 Forty Icelandic Priests and a Map of the World
- Conclusion
- Map Texts and Translations
- The Icelandic Hemispherical World Maps
- The Icelandic Zonal Map
- The Larger Viðey Map (Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar
- The Smaller Viðey Map
- Bibliography
- Index
- Studies in Old Norse Literature
Summary
The Icelandic zonal map, preserved in the abundantly illustrated encyclopaedia in Reykjavík's Stofnun Árna Magnússonar with the shelf mark GkS 1812 4to, has much in common with the hemispherical world maps. This map, located within an incomplete diagram of the lunar phases, contains only three inscriptions, written in Old Norse, that designate the habitable areas in the northern and southern hemispheres and the ocean that divides them.
The map shows the division of the spherical Earth into climatic zones. As we saw in the previous chapter, the polar regions were theorised as uninhabitable due to the intense cold, while the equatorial region was thought uninhabitable due to the intense heat of the torrid zone. Between the frozen and torrid zones at extreme latitudes lay two habitable belts in the southern and northern hemispheres. In addition to its slender geographical nomenclature, the zonal map uses colour to distinguish between climatic regions: the polar regions are shaded in the same dark ink that was used to draw its outline, while the torrid equatorial regions either side of the ocean are coloured red. The use of colour is the only indication of the climatic characteristics of these regions, which bear no written inscriptions.
All three of the map's inscriptions will be familiar from the previous chapter, being very similar to those on the hemispherical world map. The legends ‘sudr bygilig halfa’ and ‘nordr bygilig halfa’ (‘southern’ and ‘northern inhabitable region’) are comparable with the inscription on the hemispherical world map synnri bygð (‘southern inhabited region’). These legends calque the Latin zona habitabilis, which frequently identifies the habitable regions on other European zonal maps, such as those in the Liber Floridus. As outlined in the previous chapter, notions of antipodal habitation were contentious in the Middle Ages. The adjective byggiligr (‘habitable’) used on the zonal map resembles the Latin habitabilis, but conveys no certain pronouncement on whether or not these regions were actually peopled. The hemispherical map does not contain an equivalent term for the norðr bygilig hálfa, but instead divides this region to show the three continents Asia, Africa, and Europe.
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- The Mappae Mundi of Medieval Iceland , pp. 63 - 100Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2020