An Arctic Journey

• Main Author: McGhee, Robert
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York, NY 2006
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192807304.003.0014; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/51979726/isbn-9780912807304-book-part-14.pdf

Abstract This Book Has Been an Attempt to understand our vision of the arctic as a world apart, where past and present merge in a distant and compelling landscape of brilliant light. In tracing the gradual construction of this image we have journeyed through deep time, beginning in the ice age environment of our early human ancestors, which may yet resonate at some unfathomable level of cultural memory. We have visited the territory of the carefree and immortal Hyperboreans described by the geographers of the Classical Mediterranean world, and have glimpsed Ultima Thule protected by the congealed and heaving sea encountered by the first Arctic explorer of that time. We have followed these images through two millennia of speculation, exploration and creative artistry, and seen them layered with the hardships and hideous trials endured by the unprepared explorers of the past few centuries.