Extreme North: A Cultural History

by Bernd Brunner, Jefferson Chase (Translator)

Scholars and laymen alike have long projected their fantasies onto the great expanse of the global North, whether it be as a frozen no-man’s-land, an icy realm of marauding Vikings, or an unspoiled cradle of prehistoric human life. Bernd Brunner reconstructs the encounters of adventurers, colonists, and indigenous communities that led to the creation of a northern "cabinet of wonders" and imbued Scandinavia, Iceland, and the Arctic with a perennial mystique.

Like the mythological sagas that inspired everyone from Wagner to Tolkien, Extreme North explores both the dramatic vistas of the Scandinavian fjords and the murky depths of a Western psyche obsessed with Nordic whiteness. In concise but thoroughly researched chapters, Brunner highlights the cultural and political fictions at play from the first "discoveries" of northern landscapes and stories, to the eugenicist elevation of the "Nordic" phenotype (which in turn influenced America’s limits on immigration), to the idealization of Scandinavian social democracy as a post-racial utopia. Brunner traces how crackpot Nazi philosophies that tied the "Aryan race" to the upper latitudes have influenced modern pseudoscientific fantasies of racial and cultural superiority the world over.

The North, Brunner argues, was as much invented as discovered. Full of glittering details embedded in vivid storytelling, Extreme North is a fascinating romp through both actual encounters and popular imaginings, and a disturbing reminder of the power of fantasy to shape the world we live in.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Cultural, World History, Mythology, Travel

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 15, 2022

About the author

Bernd Brunner, a graduate of the Free University of Berlin and Berlin School of Economics, is an independent scholar, freelance writer, and editor of nonfiction books. He is the author of The Ocean at Home: An Illustrated History of the Aquarium. Lori Lantz received a Ph.D. in comparative literature from UCLA and attended the Free University of Berlin as a Fulbright Scholar.

Reviews

[Left Coast Justin]

A survey of historical writings about Scandinavia, primarily, geared toward academic readers. Not for the casually curious reader.

[Jifu · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley)

It was intriguing to see all the different conceptualizations that there have been of the “north” (which in this book’s case, turned out to mainly be Scandinavia) through the centuries, and how it continues to have a myriad of different meanings in contemporary times. However, the large number of women and men that he covers and their respective conceptualizations of the north made this a dense read at times. There were quite a few instances where the book felt like it was jumping rapidfire from person to person to person to person to new person and their respective projected fantasy, with me having barely any time to process what I had just previously read. By the closing chapter I was admittedly having a little trouble absorbing very much of everything, much less processing, like water being poured on an already saturated sponge.

In the end though, there was quite a lot that I was able to learn here. I do also definitely appreciate how I'm now not only thinking a little more about the many and often contradicting ideas of "north" that I have encountered over the course of my own lifetime, but also thinking about the conceptual fantasies of various regions, and what is mentally evoked by notions of "south" or "east." So overall, a good, thought-provoking read, albeit one that may be best enjoyed when consumed in small installments.

[pfaffingers_bibliophilie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kurzrezension
Ich habe dieses Buch von meiner besten Freundin zu Weihnachten bekommen und ich bin ehrlich traurig, dass es mir so gar nicht gefallen hat. Bernd Brunner wollte hier die geschichtliche und geografische Entwicklung einer Gesellschaft zeichnen und hat leider nur einen zähen und undurchsichtigen Wust an Daten und Fakten präsentiert. Der Klappentext klang so gut, aber die Umsetzung war zermürbend. Es fängt schon damit an, dass eine Einleitung fehlt und man nicht weiß, worauf dieses Buch abzielt und was der Autor innerhalb des Buches beschreiben will. Man wird sofort reingeschmissen in ein Fass aus Daten, Fakten, Namen, Reiseberichten und Karten und hat keine Ahnung, welche Zusammenhänge das haben soll. Ich habe mich bis zur Hälfte des Buches gekämpft, es dann mehrere Tage beiseite gelegt, aber besser wurde es nicht. Den letzten Teil des Buches habe ich nur noch überflogen. Einzig das Cover des Buches ist unglaublich schön. Aber schön sein ist eben doch nicht alles...

Fazit: Was sehr interessant erschien, wurde grauenvoll umgesetzt. Sehr schade, aber ich kann das Buch einfach nicht weiterempfehlen.

[Kes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interconnected chapters on what "North" has meant throughout history. Interesting, but I wish it was more thematically linked.

[David Fermín]

Empieza siendo una curiosa visión del punto cardinal conocido como 'norte' según la geografía donde nos encontremos, para luego centrarse en los países escandinavos y la fantasía que se desarrolla entorno a su mundo mitológico, sus paisajes helados y el aroma primigenio de sus laderas. Me gusta que se plantee la idea del norte como un paisaje mental, creado esencialmente por el imaginario colectivo y una forma de proyectar nuestro anhelos en tierra virgen: desde los aspectos más brutales hasta la idealización de la naturaleza. Pero creo que lo más importante del ensayo está en su parte final, cuando esos anhelos, esas fantasías fueron proyectadas por el Partido Nacionalsocialista alemán: la imagen teutona del poder nórdico, las valkirias y la dominación.

Me gusta que, de forma sutil, se desmonte todo el aparataje iconográfico nazi (mix entre romanos, vikingos y griegos), dejando en evidencia que esta gente era (es) rematadamente idiota, manipulable y de voluntad voluble. Gente peligrosa que volcó sus frustraciones en la fantasía nórdica y el norte visto como el punto de contacto más directo con nuestro yo primordial.

El único pero que le pongo es la frialdad de sus páginas: una exposición interesante pero carente de calor y, en definitiva, sin una idea clara a las que dirigirse al final. Es un ensayo que quiere ser muchas cosas en sus escasas 250 páginas pero, paradójicamente, sin norte ni rumbo. Al final no se exactamente cuál era el fin y creo que eso lastra su lectura.

[Brenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

the Goodreads review didn’t lie — interesting, but fully German

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked the concept more than the execution. Lots of interesting stuff here, but the organization (if one can call it that) is a mess. The author jumps from topic to topic seemingly at random, making it unnecessarily difficult for the reader to keep up. I also have to wonder just how much fact-checking went on here prior to publication... if you can't even get Finland's Independence Day right (which, for the record, is very much NOT February 28th but December 6th), a piece of information it would have taken all of half a minute to research, how much of the other information presented here is equally false?

[ConalPriest · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advanced reading copy through NetGalley

Bernd Brunner’s Extreme North considers how our notions of the North have developed and changed over the centuries and amongst different people; from the source material for literary epics to rival the Greeks to the myth-making factory of the Third Reich. As with many histories revolving around a changing idea, the sources employed and their thematic groupings can feel scattered, producing an overall sense of how ideas of the North took hold but without a strong central narrative. Brunner is aided in gathering up the loose threads of these ideas by concentrating on medieval to modern sources, largely those coming from Europe and North America, and given the scale of the question he asks, one can not begrudge him too much for these limitations. Work focusing more on African, Asian, and South American conceptions of the North would make a profitable comparison.
Though the range of sources, both primary and secondary, is doubtless impressive, it can at times leave the book feeling encyclopaedic rather than one to be consumed cover-to-cover. This feeling is accentuated by frequent short chapters that have the quality of encyclopaedic entries; a structure that breaks the book into analytical and narrative sections that can be difficult to explicitly relate. However, this does not prevent these individual ‘entries’ from proving compelling or useful, even if not easily worked into a larger arc. Indeed, this structure mirrors the collection of Ole Worm, the early-modern professor and keeper of Northern curiosities, with which the book begins and ends. Worm’s collection was eclectic, taking in the cultural productions, arts, and wildlife of the regions it sought to represent. Extreme North is its own such museum in miniature, and each reader will have to decide whether they can contend with Brunner’s scattered collection.
If one can accept the structure then the book has many threads to pull – from the shift away from the classical world to the fabricated Ossian of Scotland in the eighteenth century, the fabled Nordic Atlantis that was still being referenced in the twentieth, or the way in which a corrupted Norse mythology has been put to work by ignorant extremists in our own time. Brunner also makes a contribution towards our understanding of the global North-South divide, as opposed to the more commonly referenced East-West. Though Extreme North is not a comparative work in this sense, it does help to explain some of the historical antecedence for the view of the global North as wealthier and less troubled than the global South, which helps to put some of our debates on inequality today into greater context.
Perhaps most significantly, in writing about a space that is dominated in many minds by the largely white countries of Scandinavia, the hyper-masculine Vikings, and rugged men with an Amundsen-shape, Brunner is still able to explore the lives of women, native peoples of the remote North, and people of colour. In this, Brunner is able to not only examine how our notions of North came to be, but also how notions ought to change.

[Sam Law · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this an interesting read. The author throws up a lot of ideas, and has obviously done serious in-depth research.

He challenges the concepts "westerners" have of the North, without being massively revelatory. Here, the North is seen primarily (and initially) from the view point of Europe. The Greeks and Romans, then as the borders were pushed back and the world expanded, from the viewpoint of those living in what is now modern Germany, the UK, Denmark and Poland.

I found the 17th Century figure of Ole Worms very interesting, and there is quite a few references back to him throughout the book. His name was new to me, but seemingly very important in his time for "northern knowledge".

As the book develops, we move away from the image of the all-conquering, bemuscled Viking behemoth, to the burgeoning tourist and travel industry to Scandanavia and beyond, how the North became somewhat like the Grand Tour of Italy, and how increasing contact led to the forging of fables (Ossian), and cultural appropriation and corruption of various Nordic myths, most notably by pre-twentieth century individuals like Wagner, and Houston Chamberlain, and the pan-German Volkisch movements.

Later, we read of the Arctic North, how explorers "discovered" the North Pole and indigenous peoples, leading to yet another view of the North. We also get to read of the lives of the women (unfortunately never prioritised in history), the hospitality experienced by travellers, and the exaggerated tales of bucolic harmony they returned with.

Overall, a very good primer on the North, and a useful read to understand some of the political currents of today. Some parts are a little heavy-going, but the author does extremely well in keeping all the various stories, competing movements and trends in balance. I would definitely recommend it.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC to me.

[Hathoress · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting though dense read. I learned a lot about the conception of the ‘North’ in Europe and it complemented my knowledge of similar obsession and romance-era fetishization of the so-called Celts from a university class.

I particularly enjoyed the beginning and end chapters of the book. The beginning does a wonderful job of making you question the subjectivity and limitations of maps as it traces developing depictions of the Northern peak in cartography.

The end chapters were by far my favorite as they were the most interesting and relevant to my time, I suppose. I gained much from learning about the manipulation of Nordic fantasies and so-called Germanic connections to it for the purpose of race science and the creation of an ‘Aryan ideal’, as well as its employment by Nazis and the horrors that resulted. I was not fully aware of the connection between ideas of Nordic ‘purity’ and the Nazi obsession with ‘untainted’ blue eyed Caucasians, and the only prior knowledge I had was from a short documentary on far-right white supremacists in the US who ‘practice’ ancient North religion (Odin and the lot). As someone with little prior knowledge, these chapters were wonderfully educational though extremely chilling.

The chapters in between were also interesting, but as other reviewers have pointed out, quite dense and encyclopediac for my taste.

It would have done good for these chapters to include more critical analysis as the beginning and end chapters do. Why were Europeans so obsessed with discovery, nature, ‘primitive’ land and lifestyle, and so certain of the transformative potential of these things? What was happening at the time and what wider trends can be traced to explain these attitudes? Such analysis would have made those chapters more of an engaging read.

[Ken Fredette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read something about the Extreme North and have Bernd Brunner a German author to be kind enough to author such a book. He gives a six page selected bibliography of all the references he uses and a 20 page index. I am amazed that he covers so much material from Ole Worm (1588-1654) to Donald Trump in the present. He talks about Trump saying that the Scandinavian countries like Norway would be better to immigrate than the peoples of South or Central America. Didn't mention his attempt at buying Greenland from Denmark. Near the end of the book he talks about Hitler's wanting to force Norway's people into having children with German's and offers many authors talking about the Germanic roots. I have a bitter feeling about these woman who were subjected to this breeding attempt and how they were treated after the war. There were many names of people who I have not known and will forget about in the future. But I believe that this was a true cultural history of the north mixed in some of the southern countries.

[Jeffrey E · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not what I expected. A more apt title would have been "Extreme North: A History of German Perspectives". This is largely an account of the glorification of The North and mysticism surrounding the region it is not a cultural history of Scandinavia. Thoroughly researched and well translated but nonetheless a bit of a departure from what I anticipated.

[Jared Favero · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is much less a cultural “history” of the “North” and more so a collection of historical anecdotes about what people and scholars perceive—or misperceive—the “North” to be. For most of the book, the is no semblance of cohesion as the it transitions from topic to topic without making any attempt to tie them together or analyze them in an overarching framework. These shortcomings are likely a product of the book’s inability to settle on a definition for the “North,” which admittedly, is part of the point this book makes, but it makes for a sluggish read. Despite its flaws, the book is interesting and has educational value, but it could have been so much better.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll call this a strong 3.5 stars. I'm not sure it quite has the focus and the structure necessary to definitely communicate its thesis. However, I am impressed by its analysis of how this is one rabbit hole of hateful racism has its roots in this fantasy northern ideal...and how it evolved into something truly horrific and disgusting.

[Roya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a history of the notion of the “north” more than anything else mostly focused on European and North American perceptions

Very interesting but certain chapters definitely could have been more in depth as some read more like summaries of certain thoughts/segments

[Gregory Amato · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you've seen the commercial for genetic testing where a fat white guy finds out he's 1% "viking" and gets excited about it, you know part of the absurdity involving myths of what the "North" means.

Too bad such commercials don't tell you "There is no such thing as viking genes. Hardly anyone during the Viking Age in Scandinavia was an actual viking." Though there is less money in peddling the deconstruction of misunderstandings and fabrications than there is in the bullshit genetic testing commercial, thankfully Bernd Brunner has written a book to describe some of the history of the ideas and identities up for sale as of late.

Extreme North goes far back in history and certainly does mention vikings. Most of the book focuses on journeys, stories, and (often made-up) descriptions from people journeying north from the 17th century and later. Be it to Scandinavia or Greenland or Scotland or elsewhere, the North has a history of mythical reverence. Often that mythifying quality was pushed most energetically by people who had never been there.

Where did some of these stereotypes come from? Why did they come? If those questions interest you, this is a great book to read! In general I thought highly of Extreme North and of Bernd Brunner for taking up the topic.

Near the end of the book, there was one part that struck me as so out of character with the rest that it brought my opinion of the whole work down. I am confused as to how the author would do so well with evaluating different perspectives of historical people, yet do so badly with religion in his own time:

"These comparatively harmless examples of an idealization of the North should not blind us to less innocent phenomena associated with the continuing popularity of Old Norse tales and Scandinavian deities. A contemporary Germanic paganism, called Asatru, has been attracting followers for decades, spawning communities in Canada, the United States, Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, and Australia. . . . Racist, anti-Muslim, and anti-immigrant sentiments are rife among such groups, which have repeatedly clashed with the law."

I kept reading, expecting to see him qualify his earlier statements in a massive way. I didn't see it, and so the blanket statements were left to cover everyone under the Asatru banner.

If you aren't familiar with Asatru you might conclude the whole of it is focused on Norse genetic ideals with little or no time for other anyone who doesn't have the right lineage. Folkish Asatru groups certainly fall into that category . . . and folkish non-Asatru groups have been that way for over a hundred years. Categorizing all Asatru adherents as folkish, racist, or exclusionary is either really ignorant or really dishonest. A big negative mark on an otherwise good book.

[Kristopher Larsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing book. If you're starting a research project about Scandinavia, then this is a great place to start as it lays out so many references and ideas from the last 2000 years. But there is no coherent narrative or concept that pervades, just references.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difficult to fault this, as it does pretty much everything it sets out to, in its investigation of the cultural history and mythology of “the North.”
Those remote places in the vast frozen expanse at the top of the globe have always held huge interest for me, with their associated mysteries and legend.
German historian Brunner delves into the Norse Sagas, the conquering seafaring Vikings, and to the compelling age of exploration in the 18th and 19th centures, with the background of endless frozen landscapes of uninterrupted whiteness, staggering fjords, the midnight sun, and the sublime Aurora Borealis.

Of most interest for me though was the overlap to two novels I have read in the last couple of weeks.
Firstly, that it took until the late 19th century until Westerners began to develop even a very basic understanding of Inuit culture, the Inuit being just one of the many cultures Europeans encountered. The overlap I speak of, being with the first Inuit novel, published in 1969, Hunter with Harpoon by Markoosie Patsauq, which I read and reviewed a week or so ago.
And, the dark theories of white supremacy that originated in Norse legend, interpreted by the likes of Wagner, and commandeered by the Nazis to justify its reign of terror. Some of which, Brunner tells us, hold sway still today with Neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups. The overlap here being with Sjón's novel, Red Milk, which I read and reviewed last week.

Though some of the history here will shock and disturb, this is an impressively researched book which manages tread the fine line between enlightening and not over-complicating. Always though, the sheer beauty of those pristine white expanses is present.

[Brandon Pytel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this on my flight to Copenhaagen, hoping to pick up some knowledge on the Nordic countries before traveling through Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. Though this is by no means a history of Scandinavia, it does a great job at setting the scene for how we’ve viewed these countries in world history — a region pushed to the literal edges of our map and therefore perception of the world.

By starting with Ole Worm’s Museum of artifacts, Brunner takes us on a journey of fascinating, puzzling peoples and territories entrenched in mystery and the realm of the unknown.

We learn of the efforts to slowly colonize the vast, unspoiled, and primeval north, the rich mythological history of the region, and even the disturbing link that Nazi Germany made with Nordic peoples and the Germanic/Aryan race.

We also learn of a hardy people, one that mostly kept separate from the rest of European history, of the “wild, animalistic aura” that sparked the imaginations of Brits and other Europeans — “a large singular cultural unit vaguely connected to Viking history.” And of the indigenous Sami, whose remoteness in northern Sweden represents another sort of world for so many travelers.

The book is ultimately about the mythologies and stories we create about a separate world, a world untouched and beautiful, as so much of Scandinavia was through world history.

But it also is a warning against our colonizing nature, the shifting ecological imbalance we’ve seen in the Anthropocene. The North is “where melancholy is inevitable because it reminds us of what has already gotten lost in the past and could get lost in the future as human civilization presses forward to the most remote corners of our planet.”

Really recommend this for anyone traveling to Scandinavia — it's just a great introduction to the region, without getting too bogged down by the complicated details that are associated with a straight history of a region.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a history of how people have thought about the Artic circle and the countries which include it. I found it somewhat underwhelming - there is a lot of breadth covered but very little depth, and had expected more history of the north covered, rather than just people's perceptions of it. The inclusions range from Nordic cultures to Siberians to Inuit, adding to the choppy feel. The most engaging content is in the 20th Century as Brunner grapples with both the left (social democratic heaven) and the right (Viking race superiority) hijacking of Northern (well, honestly largely Nordic in this context) cultures.

[Gretchen Hohmeyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a speedy, easy read on a topic that is relevant to world events right now. Could it have been better? Yes. But I enjoyed reading about a topic I thought I knew a lot about (the history of the cultural north) retold in an anthropological and culturally relevant fashion. I've seen some issues with the author's German-focused stance. He isn't American, and the book doesn't have an American focus. This could be annoying if you were looking for more of how this impacts America directly but, as someone of German heritage, I enjoyed hearing about all of this through a more global lens. It was a pleasant break from my usual.

[Mac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, not great. A little dull and scattershot - still not entirely sure what the main idea was here. Short enough to not drag too bad.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reads like the author had a severe case of being distracted while writing this book. It jumps around very rapidly. There were a few things that I enjoyed and found interesting, but overall it felt very jumbled to me.

[Lady · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great read. I certainly found it extremely interesting. The best part was just how much I learnt from reading it and it kept my attention throughout. I loved learning about some very enlightening history and facts. I especially loved the section on Alaska. I slowed down my reading of this book to try and absorb all the wonderful knowledge. It's a book that you can read time and time again. There was plenty to learn and I enjoyed the authors' style of writing. There was never a dull moment. I recommend reading this book as it's great for learning new things and is so well written.
So much praise goes out to the author and publishers for bringing us this very interesting book.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not finish this book. I had read a description of the book and thought it would be of interest, however I found it dry and it seemed to go topically a little bit all over the place without feeling like it was building toward a central idea. Gave it up about a fifth of the way in.

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars.

There are a few chapters toward the end that feel like what the author actually wanted to write — how Naziism claimed and warped Norse mythology and culture for its dastardly purposes. Those chapters were quite good.

The book as a whole lacked that same focus and purpose though. In the other sections, the author hopped from thought to thought, era to era, and shared some interesting factoids, but didn’t actually feel like he had much to say.

[Therese Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

All things NORTH. And more obout Nazism than I ever wanted to know.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book. Every page contained fascinating and fun information. The quotes from mostly forgotten travelogues added great color to the book's pages.

[Juliane Fuchs · Rating 1 out of 5]

Eine zusammenhangslose Aneinanderreihung von wissenswerten Fakten. Kaum zieht sich ein Thema länger hin als über einen Absatz, dadurch kratzt es leider nur an der Oberfläche. Bedeutende Autoren werden in einem Nebensatz erwähnt und mit anderen in einen Topf geworfen. Liest sich wie sehr viele zusammengefasste Wikipedia-Artikel hintereinander, es fehlt der rote Faden.

[Steve's Book Stuff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Extreme North , translated from the original German by Jefferson Chase, is an examination of what “the North” has meant to different people over time, particularly how and what “the North” meant to people who were not from places they considered to be North. It’s an interesting idea, but for me it just didn’t work.

For one thing, it’s really Eurocentric, and much of the discussion of cultural ideas of the North have to do with perceptions of the Scandinavian countries, along with Greenland and Iceland, by much of the rest of Europe, particularly Germany and the UK.

Occasionally there is mention made of Canada, mostly in the context of expeditions to the Arctic and North Pole.

How Russia has at times been viewed as part of the North rather than the East is discussed.

The Vikings get covered but pretty much only through the lens of 18th and 19th century Europe’s perception of them.

The chapters jumped from one topic to another, mostly arranged in chronological order. In that way the book reads more like a collection of essays rather than a holistic non-fiction work.

I’m not sure what I was expecting from a book subtitled “A Cultural History”, but I guess my expectation was more of a history of the cultures of the people of the northern countries. Instead, this is a history of how outsiders perceived the North and what the North meant within the cultures of those outsiders.

There were occasional interesting stories, and glimpses of history that I wasn’t aware of. For example, there are his accounts of female explorers and his exploration of the antisemitism of the Brothers Grimm. And, there is a whole fascinating section on what the North, particularly the “Nordic” north, meant to the Nazis, and how it became incorporated into their “Aryan race” concept.

But other than that the book struck me as not all that interesting. Mostly because, as I said, it wasn’t what I was expecting. Sadly then, I can’t recommend it.

RATING: Two Stars ⭐⭐