Frisland, the Island That Never Was
For a hundred years, maps of the Atlantic showed a large island south of Iceland, with towns and harbours. An explorer even claimed he had landed there.
What was reported
In 1558, a Venetian named Nicolò Zeno published a map and letters he said described his ancestors' travels in the north Atlantic in the 1300s. The map showed a large island called Frisland, south of Iceland, with towns, bays and capes.
Leading mapmakers such as Mercator and Ortelius copied it, and Frisland appeared on maps for about a century. In 1578, the explorer Martin Frobisher believed he had sighted it on his way to the Arctic, and claimed it for England.
Explanations offered
Frisland doesn't exist. Most historians think the Zeno map was a confused or invented work, perhaps based partly on Iceland or the Faroes. What Frobisher saw was probably the coast of Greenland. Phantom islands like Frisland stayed on maps for centuries, because mapmakers were reluctant to remove land that might be real.
- When
- On maps from 1558 to the 1660s
- Where
- The North Atlantic, south of Iceland
- Witnesses
- Mapmakers and explorers
- Status
- Never existed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
More from At sea