ULTIMA THULE

What has unfolded on the isle of Thule over time has reached us through the accounts of the ancient Greek voyager Pytheas iPytheas (circa 380–310 BCE) was an ancient Greek merchant, explorer, and geographer. , whose narratives have been passed down to us by means of Polybius’s The Histories iPolybius (circa 200–120 BCE) was an ancient Greek historian, statesman, and military leader. Regrettably, much of Polybius’s own work has been lost, barring a few original chapters. Our understanding of it mainly stems from the commentaries and writings of Byzantine scholars from the tenth and eleventh centuries. From these fragments, the 'History' has been meticulously reconstructed. This is what is recounted therein about Pytheas and Thule: ‘Pytheas misled many when he asserted that he had traversed the entirety of Britain by land and calculated the island's circumference as exceeding forty thousand stadia. He supplements this with tales of Thule and the neighboring lands, where purportedly, there no longer existed a distinct separation of land, sea, or air. Instead, there was a confluence of these elements, resembling marine foam. According to him, land, sea, and all matter were suspended within this blend, as if this amalgamation constituted the essence of the entire world—an expanse impervious to travel by land or water. Pytheas claims to have personally witnessed this mixture, while his other statements are relayed through hearsay.’

Polybius found these accounts dubious, especially because of his skepticism about the fact that an individual of limited means and volition would embark on extensive journeys of such magnitude. Currently, we can assert that Pytheas's description closely resembles what a modern-day explorer might encounter during a fierce storm on the Northern Sea. The phrase ‘a mixture of all these elements in a suspended state’ captures it quite precisely.

However, in the ancient and, subsequently, in the medieval world, narratives about Thule were received with significant gravity, being as it was the very fringes of the inhabited world, where the cosmos breaks down into primal elements and where the course of human destiny was predetermined. A place of great intrigue that is strictly off-limits. Notable authors including Ptolemy iClaudius Ptolemy (circa 100–170 CE) was an astronomer, astrologer, mathematician, mechanic, optical theorist, musician theorist, and geographer., Strabo iStrabo (63/64 BCE–23/24 CE) was a Greco-Roman historian and geographer. , and Pliny iPliny the Elder (22/24–79 CE) was a Roman scholar, politician, and writer. documented the existence of Thule. Strabo, however, harbored considerable doubt. In the fourth book of Geography, he notes: ‘Our historical knowledge of Thule is especially uncertain due to its remote location. Thule is regarded as the northernmost among all known lands. Nevertheless, Ptolemy's accounts of Thule (as well as other locales within this region) clearly appear to be fabrications. After all, in most instances, he provided erroneous information about those areas, as I mentioned previously, which leads one to believe that he likely spun even more elaborate tales about far-off lands.’

Nonetheless, the notion of a far-off island shrouded in icy darkness, a final sanctuary for life's breath, where the fabric of reality distorts and the boundary of the real world thins, ignited imaginations. The inhabitants of Thule were portrayed in many different ways. Certain texts asserted that the island was home to a handful of cannibals living in the wildest and most irrational state. Conversely, some posited that the world's edge was inhabited by almost divine spirits engaging in enlightening discourse.

It was widely believed that the island lay a six-day journey north of Britain. While ancient authors may have embraced these accounts with confidence, Byzantines and medieval Europeans faced greater challenges in accepting them. By that time, the region had been explored to some extent: Iceland and Greenland were known and bore little resemblance to Thule. It's worth noting that from the eleventh to twelfth centuries, a peak in the medieval climate optimum saw the northern European seas clear of ice, thriving navigation and seafaring practices, the settlement of Greenland, and lush grass and even grape cultivation taking place in Iceland. No mention was made of location with any combination of ice, water, land, and sky within a six-day voyage north of the British Isles. But it is possible that in ancient times, ships were simply faster; after all, there were so many wonders that defied enumeration, such as all those pyramids and the Colossus of Rhodes. Perhaps their vessels could even fly, barely skimming the water. And thus, the quest for Thule persisted. Remarkably, these endeavors continued almost into the twentieth century. New territories, ranging from the northern reaches of Canada to North Island and Franz Josef Land, were successively declared to be that same ultima Thule.

Much like the Gatteras captains, captains venturing north were celebrated in newspapers as the conquerors of Thule. There was something captivating about this geographical image—of uncharted treasures of both the spirit and the material world awaiting discovery, of radiant caves, unfamiliar creatures, new laws of physics, or even an ancient tribe that had cut ties with the rest of the world but who had preserved an archive of ancient wisdom. However, the actual islets within the Arctic Ocean, where one might find nothing more than a salt-corroded log or a couple of abandoned bird nests amidst the ice, failed to meet the public's expectations.

Thule stood as a symbol, a fairy tale, a dream. Regrettably, this story was tainted by the skilled propagandists and authors of the Third Reich. In 1918, the Thule Society, an occult political organization that ostensibly resurrected the authentic Germanic spirit by delving into ‘Germanic antiquities’, emerged in Munich. How the transition of Thule from a Greek myth to Germanic antiquity took place remains unclear, but such minor incongruities never perturbed Nazi romantics. They proclaimed that Thule lay in the northernmost part of Scandinavia, the ancestral homeland of all Germanic peoples.

Further, according to the Society's brochures, Thule was inhabited by the surviving descendants of the lost civilization of Atlantis, the Aryans. Thus, the grand spiritual fortress of Thule was intended to illuminate the entire planet with its brilliance. But history veered off course, demanding immediate correction by engaging in various magical rituals, amassing followers and allies, and gaining increasing power within the country.

At that time, Rudolf von Sebottendorf, an ardent devotee of Freemasonry, Sufism, Kabbalah, and various numerological pursuits, was at the helm of the Society. He was a man of undeniable talent but with a clear absence of conscience, and some historians credit him as the first ideologue to manipulate the extreme anti-Semitic sentiment among German nationalists. The newspaper owned by von Sebottendorf, the Münchener Beobachter, was the most provocatively anti-Semitic publication of its time. He authored articles and books elaborating on how Jews had supposedly ruined everything for the Aryans hailing from Thule and distorted humanity's grand destiny. The Thule Society served as the foundation upon which the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (or NSDAP)—better known as the Nazi Party—took shape, ultimately propelling Hitler into power. Indeed, numerous prominent members of the NSDAP were affiliated with the Thule Society. However, von Sebottendorf's active involvement with the Society was brief. Being a thoughtless and irresponsible individual, he inadvertently became responsible for the execution of several of his like-minded companions during the disturbances in Bavaria in 1919. As a result, he deemed it best to leave the country and only returned after Hitler came to power.

Eventually, Rudolf von Sebottendorf found himself out of favor with Hitler as well. The ideologue's focus on the spiritual enlightenment of Thule, Aryans, and spirit lemurs, rather than on his revered Führer, struck a discordant note with Hitler. Von Sebottendorf was branded a hidden Jew and forced to seek refuge in Turkey. There, he persisted in serving his beloved homeland, operating as a German intelligence agent (though reportedly of little real consequence). The dissolution of the Thule Society paved the way for another mysterious Nazi project, the infamous Ahnenerbe iAhnenerbe (the word ‘Ahnenerbe’ means ‘ancestral heritage’ in German) was an organization that existed from 1935 to 1945, established to study the traditions, history, and legacy of the Nordic race with the aim of occult and ideological support for the state apparatus of Nazi Germany. , which largely adopted the concepts and practices of the Society. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, Rudolf von Sebottendorf's body was retrieved from the Bosporus, though how it got there, one might assume, is a question for the otherworldly spirits of Thule.

On a related note, the name Ultima Thule now designates one of the asteroids within the Kuiper Belt, the most distant object from Earth that a human-made probe has visited. This particular asteroid is situated at a staggering distance of 6.5 billion kilometers from our planet. It's safe to assume that Pytheas never reached such a point—well, almost certainly not.