From: "Atomic Possum" (atomicpossum@toast4tag.net)
Subject: Space1999: Ultima Thule sure gets around
Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 09:10:40 -0500

     I went to a garage sale over the weekend and picked up a book called
"Ursus of Ultima Thule" by Avram Davidson.  Ultima Thule is a planet
described on the back cover as a "primitive world...where men huddled in
animal skins against the arctic cold..." The book was published in 1973, so
it predates 1999, and its Ultima Thule in "Death's Other Dominion."

     Ultima Thule is also a planet referred to in a Star Trek: The Next
Generation epsiode.

     Is Thule, and, by extension, Ultima Thule, an outgrowth of a particular
mythology, as the Davidson book seems to suggest?

Jon "Mr. Wonderful" Stadter



Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 18:56:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Ellen C. Lindow" (sfdxb@scfn-thpl-lib-fl.us)
Subject: Re: Space1999: Ultima Thule sure gets around

Ultima Thule was from roman mythology if I remember correctly.  My Latin
is pretty rusty, but I beleive it translates as "Farthest Land".  It was
always portrayed as a cold wasteland filled with barbarians.  Pretty
accurate for Death's Other Dominion. 



Date: Tue, 09 Jun 1998 19:47:53 +0000
From: Mike Lynch (Mike-Lynch@big44foot.com)
Subject: Re: Space1999: Ultima Thule sure gets around

Actually I think the reference in Star Trek to Ultima Thule was in a DS9
episode, and if memory serves it was made by Odo... but I may be wrong - it's
been quite a while since I saw the episode that made this reference.  And I
think that the use of Ultima Thule in Star Trek was more of an homage to
Space: 1999 than anything else... especially if the comment was made by Odo,
since he and Maya share a common trait.  Of course Maya wasn't a member of
Alpha at the time of the Ultima Thule adventure, but that planet is much a
part of the Alphan mythology as Maya.

According to the AMERICAN HERITAGE COLLEGE DICTIONARY the definition of
"Ultima" and "Thule" are as follows:

Ultima (ul'te me) - The last syllable of a word. [Lat. fem. of ultimus, last]

Thule - (thoo'le). 1. The most northerly region of the habitable world to
ancient Greek geographers, variously identified as Iceland, Norway, ant the
Sethland Is.  2. A town on NW Greenland NW of Cape York; site of a U.S. naval
base during WWII. Pop. 449

The same dictionary also defines "Ultima Thule" as:

Ultima Thule - n. 1. The northern most region of the habitable world to early
geographers. 2. a distant territory of destination. 3. A remote goal or ideal.

Anyone else have any further details on the mythology of "Ultima Thule?"

Mike



From: Atomic Possum (atomicpossum@toast4tag.net)
Subject: Re: Space1999: Ultima Thule sure gets around
Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 19:04:06 -0500

     Yes, It was DS9.  I looked it up for someone else--I had remembered it
wrong.  It was the epsiode "Dramatis Personnae"  according to my reference.

Jon "Mr. Wonderful" Stadter



From: Petter Ogland (petter.ogland@dnmi4tag.no)
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 09:07:10 +0000
Subject: Re: Space1999: Ultima Thule sure gets around

I believe I've read somewhere that the place Ultima Thule is mentioned
in Vergil's "Georgia" (about 50 B.C.) indicating the border of
the Roman empire.  I've also heard of it as an Island north of the Hebrids,
in reference to Iceland, Norway and the North Pole.

Petter