The Hanseatic League and Hanse Towns in the Early Penetration of the North

Abstract

... The discovery of unknown lands elevated the glory of monarchs and won admiration for outstanding individuals. These exceptional achievements have been more reliably reported than the less spectacular ones which, consequently, are more complicated subjects for the historian. One of these less spectacular events was the participation of merchants in the opening of the North. There is no detailed documentation of how merchants first found the coasts, bays, and sailing routes of the Arctic, nor is there documentation of the earliest Hanseatic participation in these discoveries (Fig. 1). We have, however, some evidence of fairly early Hanseatic-northern relations. ...