Veni in altitudinem maris, et
tempestas demersit me
- Psalm 68
De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine
- Psalm 130
One of the most persistent myths about
the Middle Ages, is the idea that medieval men and women thought the
earth was flat. This myth has become one of the rafters in the great
narrative of modernity, which is built around the idea of continuous
historical progress in which mankind's self-improvement is as linear
as the passing of time. The grand narrative of modernity is largely
based on an intense, unrelenting optimism and enthusiasm about
technological advancement and societal development, to a great extent
propped up by a secularist dislike of religion and the rise of
relativism. The main idea seems to be that since society is always
improving - which is one of the great dictums of modernity's
champions - things must have been pretty bad all those centuries ago,
especially since the world was dominated by a tyrannical, monolithic
church and science was kept at bay by the metaphysics of monks. That
this is grossly simplistic can be seen in this short article on the
myth of the flat earth.
The origin of this idea has been traced
to the novel The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus
by Washington Irving, published in 1828, in which the belief in a
flat earth becomes the foil of the medieval powers and elevates the
hero Columbus who single-handedly proved the earth's spherical shape.
This misconception is prevalent even today, and has been taught in
schools for a long time.
Although
the myth has been ascribed to Washington Irving's novel, the idea
that the medieval world was flat may have been in circulation long
before 1828. In this blogpost, I will look at an excerpt from Adam of
Bremen's Gesta Hamaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum,
written in the 1070s, which may show us one of the sources for the
idea of a flat medieval earth.
The
excerpt in question describes a voyage into the deep northern waters
for the purpose of finding out whether there was any solid land
beyond Iceland (which is described as the world's outermost region,
even further away than Greenland and Vinland). Eventually, the
expedition reaches the northern waters and discover that the world is
covered by a thick fog, and after a while they reach the end of the
earth where there is a deep chasm in which water flows in and out.
This is the fount of tides, according to Adam of Bremen. Since it was
still unknown in the 11th century that the moon affected the tides
and ebbs of the earth, it was believed that the tide was caused by
the ocean issuing out of this great abyss. The excerpt is found in
book four, chapter 39. The following is my own translation, and it
can be checked against the Latin text. I have also
used, as a corrective reference, the translation into Norwegian by
Bjørg Tosterud Danielsen and Anne Katrine Frihagen from 1993.
Thereafter
passing on this side Denmark and on the other side Britain they
arrived at the Orkneys, which they kept on their left side when
passing, having Norway on the right side and assembled after a long
voyage at the frozen Iceland. From this point they plowed the waters
into the furthermost region of the seven stars [i.e. the Arctic], and
after a while they put behind them all the islands that could be seen
- of which I have spoken above - and commending their brave journey
unto the omnipotent God and the blessed confessor Willehad, they then
were plunged into this dark mist of the frozen waters, which the
eyes could penetrate only with great difficulty. And lo: the unstable
channel of the ocean returning to the hidden beginning of its source,
and the unfortunate, despairing sailors - indeed, imagining death
only - were drawn with a most forceful urge towards chaos [it is said
to be the chasm of the bowels of the earth] [sic.], [towards] this
deep in which, rumour has it when the sea seems to withdraw, all the
seas return and are then swallowed up and again spewed back up from
whence they are said to have sprung. When these sailors now solely
implored the merciful God to receive their spirits, the force of this
returning sea washed some of the ships away, while others were
repelled by the flowing water and brought back a long way behind the
rest. And after they had been liberated from this present danger,
which their eyes clearly saw, by help of the favourable God, with
great strength they took to the oars to help the escape.
What
is interesting to my purpose here is the idea of a great chasm at the
end of the world. This image, sailors falling off an edge and into
the deep unknown, is emblematic of how the idea of the medieval flat
earth has been represented. However, Adam of Bremen is not talking
about a flat earth, he is talking about a chasm in the Arctic from
which water issues and is drawn back, thus creating those mysterious
tides. The chasm in itself, as any discerning reader will note, does
not and can not suggest a flat earth, for if it did the water that
went into the chasm could not be regurgitated from it. Elsewhere in
his work, it is also very clear that Adam operates with a spherical
world, as he refers to the British sea which runs into the Arctic and
covers the whole world - not in the sense that it flows to the edges
of the world and then falls into the void, but in the sense that it
runs around the globe.
When
considering this excerpt from Adam's Gesta hamaburgensis,
it is easy to see a possible origin for the idea that medieval men
and women thought the world was flat. If the anecdote about the
Frisian sailors who toppled into the chasm at the end of the world
entered folklore and became one of those stories of imprecise and
unknown origin, you don't need many steps before the regurgitating
chasm is replaced by a cosmic void. Of course, we don't know that
this confusion has taken place, and I'm certainly not saying that
Adam is the source for Washington Irving's misconception, but the
anecdote nonetheless illustrates those potential misunderstandings
which become so ingrained in public consciousness as to morph into
factoids.
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