History: This Way Be Monsters

Back before sextants and telescopes, seamen had to do things the hard way. Naturally, that included sailing off to points unknown and exploring worlds that landsmen imagined were unchartable. The Vikings were surprisingly good at that sort of thing, sailing off to Asia and North America and everywhere in between. Besides incredible courage, seamen have always had a penchant for story telling. And it’s a sure bet that nothing was more fun that scaring the hell out of a lubber or two when you got home from a voyage to the edge of the world. Here, then, are a few of the stories which have come down to us from before the Great Age of Sail. These are imaginary locations and usually, along with their name, some slightly vague and terrifying description of the inhabitants or troubles one might encounter there are included. Antipodes: this was the land of dragons. One could also find such oddly named and nebulous beings as garamantes and troglodytes there. Brumae: these were large areas of open ocean where enormous patches of seaweed lurked. The weed was said to be able to founder a ship. These tales may have been inspired by the Sargasso Sea. Located in the middle of the North Atlantic, the area is often clogged with sargassum seaweed which can indeed disable ships. Frigor: these areas were supposed to be empty, frozen lands at the northernmost and southernmost tips of the world, an obvious reference to the Arctic and Antarctica. Mare Tenebrosum: here giant monsters resided. All the tall tales one could imagine – huge bats with human faces, gigantic octopi that could drag a ship to her doom and sea serpents of every description – resided in this unnamed, uncharted part of the sea. Torrid Zone: this was the equatorial area, where calms plague sailing ships and the air feels like a furnace belched it out. Sailors would add to this terror by telling of giant walls of flame shooting up out of the ocean and hindering their progress. This area was sometimes referred to as Perusta. Just a few thoughts on what lurks beyond the horizon, some more real than others. Header: Classic Kraken; tinted engraving via Wikimedia