What is North?

Book excerpt: The British Isles, Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, and Eastern Canada, alongside many small islands, form a broken bridge across the northern extremities of the Atlantic Ocean. This 'North Atlantic World' is a heterogeneous but culturally intertwined area, ideally suited to the fostering of an interest in all things northern by its people. For the storytellers and writers of the past, each more northerly land was far enough away that it could seem fabulous and even otherworldly, while still being just close enough for myths and travellers' tales to accrue. This book charts attitudes to the North in the North Atlantic World from the time of the earliest extant sources until the present day. The varied papers within consider a number of key questions which have arisen repeatedly over the centuries: 'where is the North located?', 'what are its characteristics?', and 'who, or what lives there?'. They do so from many angles, considering numerous locations and an immense span of time. All are united by their engagement with the North Atlantic World's relationship with the North.