What lies beneath the ice of our fascination with the North? | Aeon Essays
aeon.co · 4,120 words · saved by 1 readers
The top of the globe has always meant fantasy, myth, adventure. What explains the icy northern grip on our imagination?
The night sky pulses with colour: streaks of viridian, azure, violet and crimson vivid against the bleached land. Leviathans roam the seas, singing in haunting voices, and white bears hunt toothed whales on land and water. Giants make their homes in the mountains; elves and trolls live among the rocks. Half the year is spent in darkness and perishing cold, bleak and treacherous, the other half in sunlight and warmth, the landscape lush and verdant. Here is a portal to another world. The tribal inhabitants, some more animal than human, live in harmony with their harsh environment, bridle at…
related reading
- In Northern Mists, by Fridtjof Nansen-A Project Gutenberg eBookgutenberg.org
- Book Reviews · Gwern.netgwern.net
- Discworld Rules - by Venkatesh Rao - Contraptionscontraptions.venkateshrao.com
- Nothing But Solitude | Lapham’s Quarterlylaphamsquarterly.org
- Collections: That Dothraki Horde, Part III: Horse Fiddles – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantryacoup.blog
- There’s someone on the icesamkriss.substack.com
- A ‘different kind of wonder’rochester.edu
- Will Manidis (@WillManidis) on Xx.com
- Witcher 3 and Diversity | Terminally Incoherentterminally-incoherent.com
- on-fairy-stories1.pdfcoolcalvary.com
- The Peoples of Americapalladiummag.com
- Collections: That Dothraki Horde, Part IV: Screamers and Howlers – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantryacoup.blog