Here be dragons, beyond the known world

Maps tell us about places that exist, but every so often they also give free rein to imagination and fantasy, bringing us stories of monsters, lions, and dragons.

Hic sunt dracones¹ is a Latin expression that has come to be used to label and map lands beyond the known world. Since the Middle Ages, it has been common to depict wild animals, monsters and mythological creatures to mark the boundaries of the known world. This is something we find in many works, such as the Westminster Abbey Psalter World Map, dating from the mid-13th century. At the bottom of the map, two dragons can be seen carrying the weight of the world.

The dragons on the world map in the Psalter, 1265 (source)

The first explicit reference to the expression Hic sunt dracones is found in the Hunt-Lenox Globe, which was created between 1503 and 1507. And here's the curious thing. Despite popular belief, this expression was not in common use and there are no other known ancient maps that actually used it. The Latin expression that really took over the unexplored regions was Hic sunt leones². It is possible that the historical use of dragons as the prototypical monster in the cartography of the unknown was what really transformed the collective memory so that today we use one term over the other.

Hic sunt dracones, on the Hunt-Lenox Globe (source)

Sea serpents, mermaids, dragons, whales… The variety of monsters present on the maps was magnificent, although their creativity was not so great. The vast majority of the images representing these monsters were simply copies from one map to another. In the best cases, they were copies of illustrations in other books, manuscripts or paintings. Perhaps some cases were authentic, but they were few and far between.

The Sea Chart by Olaus Magnus

If you are truly fascinated by the use of monsters and fantastic creatures in cartography, you will undoubtedly be familiar with Olaus Magnus's masterpiece. Carta Marina³, published in 1539, is a map of Scandinavia that aims to represent the wonders of that territory. But that reality was not enough for Magnus, who took his creativity to an unexpected level, filling every little space on the map with dozens of monsters of all kinds.

Olaus Magnus' Carta Marina, 1539 (source)

I encourage you to consult the map and lose yourself in it, as it is not to be missed. To stimulate your appetite, here are my favourites.

A fish-boar with multiple eyes on its body

A red sea serpent acting as a Leviathan

A crowned pink fish talking to a mammoth-fish-princess

The maps of Abraham Ortelius

For those who have not been around long, I need to mention that I do have a favourite map, like any trustworthy person does⁴. It is the world map published by Abraham Ortelius in 1570, which I find fascinating, given the level of detail for the time it was published.

But Ortelius' work went far beyond this map and, over two decades, he devoted himself to publishing various maps of different regions of the world. Following in part in the footsteps of Olaus Magnus, he also had something of a fixation with placing monsters in the blanks left in his cartographic work.

An ichthyocentaur. Yes, Greek mythology gave a name to the monster, part human, part horse, part fish.

A kind of seahorse, though not as charming as a hippocampus.

Mutant whales attacking ships. As if that weren't scary enough.

Centuries and centuries of maps and monsters

The meme of fantastic creatures and monsters on maps was very popular in the 16th century, mainly thanks to the two cartographers we have just seen, but it continued for many centuries afterwards. Although initially, it was a way of identifying the unknown or warning sailors of possible dangers, over time it became a way of adding artistic nuances and differentiating one's own maps from those of others.

To finish this article today, here is a small selection. And do not miss the last one.

1367: Bad luck if the Kraken sinks your ship, right? (source)

1569: Even Mercator included sea monsters on his famous map (source)

1593: A creature that is half unicorn, half fish. We're running out of ideas (source)

1621: Here we have a monster so large that a group of explorers could climb on top of it and hold a mass, complete with an altar (source)

1928: Sea serpents, strange fish, a Spanish ghost ship… on a 20th-century map of New Haven (source)

Any other that I may have missed? Please comment your favourites.

1. Here be dragons.

2. Here be lions.

3. Sea Chart.

4. If you don’t, pick up one.