The Ice Museum: In Search Of The Lost Land Of Thule (2007) - Plot & Excerpts
“Some said ‘Toolay’, some said ‘Thoolay’, a very few said ‘Thool’. Poets rhymed Thule with newly, truly and unruly, but never, it seemed with drool.”The Ice Museum: In Search of the Lost Land of Thule was far better in theory than in execution. Former journalist Joanna Kavenna (yes the same one whose book, The Birth of Love, is on this year’s Orange Prize longlist) has a fascination with Thule, which was first described by Greek explorer Pytheas, who claimed to have reached it in 4th century BC. Thule is supposed to be a “land near a frozen ocean, draped in the mist. Thule was seen once, described in opaque prose, and never identified with any certainty again. It became a mystery land, standing by a cold sea. A land at the edge of the maps.”And somehow, ‘Thule’ became a word used to stand in for anything. e.e.cummings writes of the ‘Ultima Thule of plumbing’. A Thule society was set up in Munich, members included Hitler and Rudolf Hess. A US airbase in Greenland still retains the name of Thule.Kavenna gives up her cushy job in London and travels through Shetland, Iceland, Norway, Estonia, Greenland and Spitsbergen. What a journey, eh? But the book is a bit of a letdown. Perhaps not entirely her fault, for how many ways can one describe lands of ice, snow and fjords?I wasn’t expecting to read about Nazis and the World War when I came across this book. But Kavenna is quite determined to explore more about the Thule Society, interviewing Krigsbarn (children born to Norwegian mother, Nazi father) who were thought to be mentally ill, or who were simply shunned and hidden away in children’s homes or mental institutions after the war. She travels to Greenland, desperate to step foot on the US airbase of Thule, and is finally given a few hours to wander around. But it doesn’t make for anything interesting or insightful really. In the end, I had more interest in her shipmates onboard the Aurora Borealis, travelling around Greenland in this former icebreaker, stopping at settlements along the way, like the six German scientists who shared her table:“Soon they just wanted everyone else to vanish; they said they disliked queuing behind the for food, and passing them life-jackets and waiting while they fumbled for change at the bar. But they kept it up, toasting each other, greeting each other in the mornings like long-lost friends, treading on each other’s toes in the queues and then pretending it was all an accident.”Or the two employees at the deserted, opulent Villa Ammende in Estonia, where Kavenna is the only guest. And as she leaves, she wonders if the guy who runs the reception and the waitress live it up during this low season:“The bacchanalia only stopped when the bell tolled through the corridors; then they put on their uniforms and became solemn and monosyllabic. As I drove off I imagined the man on the desk whipping off his grey suit and donning a red velvet smoking jacket, slinking into the billiard room to pot a few balls, before his first whisky of the day.”Something tells me that Kavenna’s works of fiction might be a better read.So The Ice Museum summed up: An intriguing endeavour, but in the end, not really a journey that interested me very much, although it did inspire a little bit of wanderlust (I do have a soft spot for tales of arctic exploration).
A legend, a land once seen and then lost forever, Thule was a place beyond the edge of the maps, a mystery for thousands of years. And to the Nazis, Thule was an icy Eden, birthplace of Nordic �purity.� In this exquisitely written narrative, Joanna Kavenna wanders in search of Thule, to Shetland, Iceland, Norway, Estonia, Greenland, and Svalbard, unearthing the philosophers, poets, and explorers who claimed Thule for themselves, from Richard Francis Burton to Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen. Marked by breathtaking snowscapes, haunting literature, and the cold specter of past tragedies, this is a wondrous blend of travel writing and detective work that is impossible to set down. RVIEW: Thule, real or not, is ripe and beguiling material for a literary and geographic adventurer, and Kavenna is formidable on both fronts. . . . Highly cerebral, erudite, refreshing. (The New York Times Book Review)
What do You think about The Ice Museum: In Search Of The Lost Land Of Thule (2007)?
Low 4. The author has provided an intriguing exploration of the northern-most tips of Europe in search of the lost kingdom of Thule. This ice-laden kingdom was first explored by Pytheas in the fourth century BC and Kavenna provides part history-part travelogue as she sets about trying to locate its exact position. Along the way the author provides both beautiful descritions of the harsh unforgiving landscapes of the Shetlands and Iceland, synopses of Grennland and Estonia society, a history of Aryan supremacy, and a damning report on man's devastating impact on the environment. This reader's favourite chapters concern the en vogue Victorian tourism of Iceland by the likes of William Morris and Richard Burton, and the profile of the courageous and enigmatic arctic explorer Nansen.
—Steve
I love this style of memoir where the unravelling of an obsession becomes a treasure hunt, where time for the author seems to dip away and the "problem" of finding an answer or conclusion is tantamount to the machinations of everyday life, to breathing itself. This book is a history lesson on cold. Smack in the middle of an actual Summer in San Francisco where it has been Hot for real, reading a chapter every morning was a replacement for the air conditioning that houses here lack. I want Kavenna to take on some of my obsessions and unravel them to their final destinations.
—Sara
Thule is one of those mysteries of geography, like Atlantis, over which people like to argue - did it or did it not really exist? It has appeared in literature for an incredibly long time, but so much in literature has been passed down over centuries without much to back it up - like an urban legend. It seems every one wants to claim a piece of Thule, and has "origins" in Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Estonia and on and on. The author here goes on a physical journey to try to find some proof in each of the places of the legitimacy of the claims so in essence this is actually more of a travelogue than anything else. There is a lot of history here, the most interesting of which is the discussion of the Nazi party getting extremely excited by the idea of Thule and their desire to use it as a place to create their "perfect" race.Sort of a surprising read all the way around - not something I normally would have picked up if not for the fact that the book I was actually looking for was not missing from the library shelf and this one was in the vicinity, but something I found exceptionally interesting nonetheless.And just for the record, the pronunciation is more likely "Toolay" than "Thoole" because, as the author pointed out wittily, the word has made it's way into centuries' worth of poems and never once has it been rhymed with drool.I thought that was funny.
—El
