The Mappae Mundi of Medieval Iceland (Studies in Old Norse Literature)

About this book

The Icelandic mappae mundi (maps of the world) drawn between c. 1225 and c. 1400 are contemporary with the breathtaking rise of its vernacular literary culture and provide important insights into the Icelanders capacious geographical awareness in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. However in comparison with those drawn elsewhere among them the English Hereford mappa mundi they have received little critical attention. This book explores the Icelandic mappae mundi not only for what they reveal about the Icelanders geographical awareness but as complex registers of Icelandic national self-perception and imagining situating them in their various literary intellectual and material contexts. It reveals fully how Icelanders used the cartographic medium to explore fantasies of national origin their political structures and place in Europe. The small canon of Icelandic world maps is reproduced here photographically with their texts presented alongside English translations to enable a wider understanding. Table of Contents Introduction The Icelandic hemispherical world maps The Icelandic zonal map The two maps from Viey Iceland in Europe Forty Icelandic Priests and a Map of the World Conclusion Map Texts and Translations Bibliography