The Arctic Ocean, also identified as the Mediterranean Sea of the North, reveals a paradox as well as similarities of both regions for some authors, as developed in this article.
The Arctic is part of the imaginary, social/collective and individual. This frozen region has unique characteristics that create an inhospitable place, remote and harsh in accessibility but where indigenous communities live. The imaginary of this region was created by the Greek navigator Pytheas, guided by the Great Bear Constellation(“Arktos”). Ensheathing European powers throughout centuries, mainly during the 19th century, to reach this inhospitable location.
The concept “Polar Mediterranean” was introduced by Vilhjalmur Stefansson in the year 1920, after considering that the Arctic Ocean could be compared to the Mediterranean Sea. Because of that, he was known as the “Prophet of the North”. This vision, seen as a paradox, demonstrates Vilhjalmur Stefansson´s futurist perspective about the potentialities of the Arctic Ocean. A prophetic future confirmed by scientists who have been claiming: the possibility of new maritime routes and access to resources. In what concerns the maritime routes, in the 16th and 17th centuries, it was thought that travelling from China to the North Atlantic was possible. An idea confirmed in the 21st century.
The transformations provoked by climate change altered the collective and individual imaginary of the Arctic, allowing an opening to the external world, and bringing a new focus in the 21st century. A focus was verified in different periods of world history, especially during World War II and the Cold War, as the Arctic was considered a geostrategic point for access and security in the region. This way, after the Cold War, cooperation was developed being a region of common interest of the Arctic States. With indigenous communities’ adaptability derived from the melting ice, a similarity between the Arctic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea can be confirmed: the rapprochement and connection of the communities within global interactions. The Arctic is not periphery anymore.
Reference: Villalobos Dantas, S. (2024). The Polar Mediterranean Imaginary. A Renewed Paradigm by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. Nordicum-Mediterraneum. Icelandic E-Journal of Nordicum and Mediterranean Studies.
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Author: Céline Rodrigues
