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Frisland, also called Frischlant, Friesland, Frislanda, Frislandia, or Fixland, is a phantom island that appeared on virtually all of the maps of the North Atlantic from the 1560s through the 1660s.
Frisland originally may also have been a cartographic approximation of Iceland, but in 1558 the influential Zeno map charted the landmass as an entirely separate island south (or occasionally south-west) of Iceland.
After this incorrect charting, the phantom island appeared that way on maps for the next 100 years. [1] Its existence was given currency in manuscript maps of the 1560s by the Maggiolo family of Genoa, and the island was accepted and reproduced by cartographers Gerardus Mercator and Jodocus Hondius. Some early maps by Willem Blaeu, such as his 1617 map of Europe, omit it, but it reappeared on his 1630 world map as one of many islands shown off the eastern coast of Labrador, which was then believed to extend to within a few hundred miles of Scotland. It also appeared on a 1652 world map by Visscher, largely copied from that of Blaeu. The 1693 Vincenzo Coronelli map places it close to Greenland. [2] Frederick J. Pohl identified Frisland with an island he referred to as "Fer Island", modern English Fair Isle, an island lying between mainland Shetland and the Orkney islands in his book arguing the case that Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney visited North America. [3] Even in the mid-18th century, explorers' maps clearly depicted Frisland as separated from Greenland by a wide strait.
The myth of Frisland was gradually dispensed with as explorers, chiefly from England and France, charted and mapped the waters of the North Atlantic.
Frisland was shown as a roughly rectangular island, with three triangular promontories on its western coast.
In some mappings, it is identified as "Fixland". [4] (Matteo Prunes map of 1553, from Library of Congress, see upper right of map; see also, [5] page 88 for other clearer source; see also Catalan map of 1480 showing "Fixland"; [6] original source map copied in this article, page 64. [5] )
A phantom island is a purported island which was included on maps for a period of time, but was later found not to exist. They usually originate from the reports of early sailors exploring new regions, and are commonly the result of navigational errors, mistaken observations, unverified misinformation, or deliberate fabrication. Some have remained on maps for centuries before being "un-discovered."
Vinland, Vineland, or Winland was an area of coastal North America explored by Vikings. Leif Eriksson landed there around 1000 AD, nearly five centuries before the voyages of Christopher Columbus and John Cabot. The name appears in the Vinland Sagas, and describes Newfoundland and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence as far as northeastern New Brunswick. Much of the geographical content of the sagas corresponds to present-day knowledge of transatlantic travel and North America.
The history of Greenland is a history of life under extreme Arctic conditions: currently, an ice sheet covers about eighty percent of the island, restricting human activity largely to the coasts.
Bus, Buss, or Busse Island was a phantom island in the North Atlantic Ocean. It was recorded as discovered during the third expedition of Martin Frobisher in September 1578 by sailors aboard the ship Emanuel of Bridgwater and was indicated on maps as existing between Ireland and mythical Frisland at about 57° N. The island was then named for the type of vessel that its discoverers used. It is believed that Frobisher took Greenland for Frisland and Baffin Island for Greenland and Emanuel, returning home, made a mistake in dead reckoning and mistook optical effects near Greenland at around 62° N for new land.
Thule is the most northerly location mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman literature and cartography. Modern interpretations have included Orkney, Shetland, Northern Scotland, the island of Saaremaa (Ösel) in Estonia, and the Norwegian island of Smøla.
Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, Lord of Roslin was a Scottish noblesse. Sinclair held the title Earl of Orkney and was Lord High Admiral of Scotland under the King of Scotland. He was sometimes identified by another spelling of his surname, St. Clair. He was the grandfather of William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness, the builder of Rosslyn Chapel. He is best known today because of a modern legend that he took part in explorations of Greenland and North America almost 100 years before Christopher Columbus. William Thomson, in his book The New History of Orkney, wrote: "It has been Earl Henry's singular fate to enjoy an ever-expanding posthumous reputation which has very little to do with anything he achieved in his lifetime."
Zichmni is the name of an explorer-prince who appears in a 1558 book by Caterino Zeno of Venice, allegedly based on letters and a map dating to the year 1400 by the author's ancestors, brothers Nicolò and Antonio Zeno. Zichmni is described as a great lord of some islands off the southern coast of Frislanda, a possibly fictitious island claimed to be larger than Ireland and located south of Iceland.
The Zeno brothers, Nicolò and Antonio, were Italian noblemen from the Republic of Venice who lived during the 14th century. They came to prominence in 1558, when their descendant, Nicolò Zeno the Younger, published a map and a series of letters purporting to describe an exploration made by the brothers of the north Atlantic and Arctic waters in the 1390s. The younger Nicolò claimed the documents were discovered in a storeroom of his family home.
Eday is one of the islands of Orkney, which are located to the north of the Scottish mainland. One of the North Isles, Eday is about 24 kilometres from the Orkney Mainland. With an area of 27 km2 (10 sq mi), it is the ninth-largest island of the archipelago. The bedrock of the island is Old Red Sandstone, which is exposed along the sea-cliffs.
John Scolvus or John of Kolno may have been a navigator of the late 15th century. According to some sources he was among a group of early Europeans to reach the shores of the Americas prior to Columbus, arriving in 1476 as steersman of Didrik Pining, although this view is not supported by contemporary evidence, and as he is not mentioned contemporaneously, his identity and even existence have been disputed.
The Cantino planisphere or Cantino world map is a manuscript Portuguese world map preserved at the Biblioteca Estense in Modena, Italy. It is named after Alberto Cantino, an agent for the Duke of Ferrara, who successfully smuggled it from Portugal to Italy in 1502. It measures 220 x 105 cm.
João Fernandes Lavrador (1453–1501) was a Portuguese explorer of the late 15th century. He was one of the first modern explorers of the Northeast coasts of North America, including the large Labrador peninsula, which was named after him by European settlers in eastern Canada. The popular dog breed Labrador Retriever is named after the peninsula and thus by effect also bears his name. It was developed as a working breed for hunting.
Clan Sinclair is a Highland Scottish clan which holds the lands of Caithness, the Orkney Islands, and the Lothians. The chiefs of the clan were the Barons of Roslin and later the Earls of Orkney and Earls of Caithness.
Johan Peter Koch was a Danish captain and explorer of the Arctic dependencies of Denmark, born at Vestenskov. He was the uncle of the geologist Lauge Koch
The exploration of North America by European sailors and geographers was an effort by major European powers to map and explore the continent with the goal of economic, religious and military expansion. The combative and rapid nature of this exploration is the result of a series of countering actions by neighboring European nations to ensure no single country had garnered enough wealth and power from the Americas to militarily tip the scales over on the European continent. It spanned the late 15th to early 17th centuries, and consisted primarily of expeditions funded by Spain, England, France, and Portugal. See also the European colonization of the Americas.
Gunnbjörn's skerries (Gunnbjarnarsker) were a group of small islands lying close between Iceland and Greenland, discovered by Gunnbjörn Ulfsson in the 9th century. They became a popular stopover for ships traveling to Greenland and a brief attempt to set up a colony was made about 970. Snæbjörn Galti visited around 978. A later attempt succeeded and by 1391 there were 18 farms on the islands. Apparently in 1456, according to Ruysch's 1507 map, the islands "completely burned up", i.e. were destroyed by a volcanic eruption. Ivar Bardsen mentions them in his work "Description of Greenland in the Fourteenth Century". On later maps, as late as 1700, such as Jan van Keulen's "Pascaert van Groenlandt", the shoals formed by the remains of the explosion was noted with the name "Gombar Scheer".
This timeline of European exploration lists major geographic discoveries and other firsts credited to or involving Europeans during the Age of Discovery and the following centuries, between the years AD 1418 and 1957.
King Frederick VI Coast is a major geographic division of Greenland. It comprises the coastal area of Southeastern Greenland in Sermersooq and Kujalleq municipalities fronting the Irminger Sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by King Christian IX Land on the north and the Greenland Ice Sheet to the west.
Cape Clarence Wyckoff, also known as Cape Wyckoff, is a broad headland in the Wandel Sea, Arctic Ocean, northernmost Greenland. Administratively it is part of the Northeast Greenland National Park.
