Case file · Folklore / legend
Frisland, the island that never was
The 'Zeno map' published in Venice in 1558 by Nicolò Zeno showed a large island called Frisland south of Iceland, said to have been visited by his ancestors in the 1380s.
1558 CE · 61.00, -24.00 · status: hoax
The account
Frisland was copied onto maps by Mercator and Ortelius and appeared on charts into the 17th century. Martin Frobisher even thought he had sighted it in 1578.
The sceptical view
Most historians consider the Zeno narrative and map a 16th-century fabrication, perhaps built on a misdrawn Faroe Islands.