Zembla - resembla: a sort of bizarro-world of reflections and fairy tales, peopled by real-world caricatures and literary characters, located somewhere between Russia and Scandinavia, Kinbote's Zembla is obviously fictitious, but it has many real-world sources:

Novaya Zemlya (Nova Zembla - "New Land"): an archipelago north of western Russia between the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea. The two main islands are separated by the Matochkin Strait and divided by a northern continuation of the Ural Mountains, the southern of the two mainly tundra, the northern more glacial. Although sparsely populated, Novaya Zemlya has often been used for nuclear testing.

"The Russians knew of Novaya Zemlya from the 11th or 12th century, when traders from Novgorod visited the area. For western Europeans, the search for the Northeast passage in the 16th century led to its exploration. The first visit was by Hugh Willoughby in 1553. Willem Barentsz in 1596 rounded the north point of Novaya Zemlya, and wintered on the east coast near the northern tip. During this voyage the west coast was mapped." (from wikipedia)

Terra MODIS Satellite image

Some photos

See Pale Fire pp 137-138 for some Zembla geography.

Kinbote asserts that his own Zembla is *not* Nova Zembla (see p. 267).

The Novaya Zemlya Effect: "Named after the Russian island in the Arctic Ocean, where it often occurs, the Novaya Zemlya Effect is produced by a strong, shallow, surface-based inversion acting as a mirror, which reflects the light of the sun when it is just below the horizon" (jackstephensimages.com). See also.

Zemlya means "land" in Russian, and there are others: Severnaya Zemlya, Zemlya Frantsa Iosefa, etc. Swift refers to Nova Zembla: "She dwelt on the Top of a snowy Mountain in Nova Zembla" (Battle of the Books):

'Meanwhile Momus, fearing the worst, and calling to mind an ancient prophecy which bore no very good face to his children the Moderns, bent his flight to the region of a malignant deity called Criticism. She dwelt on the top of a snowy mountain in Nova Zembla; there Momus found her extended in her den, upon the spoils of numberless volumes, half devoured. At her right hand sat Ignorance, her father and husband, blind with age; at her left, Pride, her mother, dressing her up in the scraps of paper herself had torn. There was Opinion, her sister, light of foot, hood-winked, and head-strong, yet giddy and perpetually turning. About her played her children, Noise and Impudence, Dulness and Vanity, Positiveness, Pedantry, and Ill-manners. The goddess herself had claws like a cat; her head, and ears, and voice resembled those of an ass; her teeth fallen out before, her eyes turned inward, as if she looked only upon herself; her diet was the overflowing of her own gall; her spleen was so large as to stand prominent, like a dug of the first rate; nor wanted excrescences in form of teats, at which a crew of ugly monsters were greedily sucking; and, what is wonderful to conceive, the bulk of spleen increased faster than the sucking could diminish it. "Goddess," said Momus, "can you sit idly here while our devout worshippers, the Moderns, are this minute entering into a cruel battle, and perhaps now lying under the swords of their enemies? who then hereafter will ever sacrifice or build altars to our divinities? Haste, therefore, to the British Isle, and, if possible, prevent their destruction; while I make factions among the gods, and gain them over to our party."'

Pope in his "Essay on Man" lists Zembla as one "extreme of Vice":

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
But where th'extreme of Vice was ne'er agreed:
Ask where's the north?--at York 'tis on the Tweed;
In Scotland at the Orcades; and there
At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where.
No creature owns it in the first degree,
But thinks his neighbour farther gone than he;
E'vn those who dwell beneath its very zone,
Or never feel the rage or never own;
What happier natures shrink at with affright,
The hard inhabitant contends is right.
(II-V)

A running theme in _Life of Johnson_ surrounds Boswell's attempts to convince Johnson of the value of Scotland (from which Boswell hails and toward which Johnson has a low opinion). (Zembla as the North -- see below.) Zembla is a part of a constant connection to the North and things that have their origin there. The North: the furthest extreme:

Zembla is also linked to Ultimate Tully / Greenland, part of the Viking exploration that moves through Iceland to Vin Land / Vineland / America.

Thule, Ultima Thule
The Farthest Land; a geographical region believed to be six days' sail north of Britain, the most northern region of the world. (The mercenaries holding Charles captive in Onhava are from Thule.)

VN's "Ultima Thule"

"Of what would have been Nabokov's last novel in Russian, written in Paris in 1939-40, only the first two chapters survive, as "Ultima Thule" and "Solus Rex." An emotional artist relates to his recently-deceased wife a curious tale of Adam Falter, who has discovered the 'essence of things.'

The phrase Ultima Thule describes a distant territory or remote goal or ideal. Thule was the northernmost region of the habitable world to ancient Greek geographers, from the time of the fourth century Greek navigator Pytheas visited a northern island he called Thule, which has variously been identified as Iceland, Norway, or the Shetland Islands." (from Zembla web-site)

Thule: The northwestern peninsula of Greenland pointing towards Canada, and a town there. Site of a WWII United States Navy base.

Photos of Thule
Map


From the same web-site, the origin of Thule (pronounced too-lee): "The name, Thule, is very old and historic. In the third century BC an exploration fleet departed the Greek colony of Massilla, the present day Marseilles, France. They proceeded past the Straits of Gibraltar, into the Atlantic Ocean, and headed north to what is now Northern Scotland. There, they were told that far to the north was a land called Thule, which was the northernmost place occupied by people.

This news was carried back to the Mediterranean world, where the name Ultima Thule (Thule, the Ultimate) became the name for the unknown land, which was located at the extreme northern limit of human habitation. This usage carried on through the Middle Ages.

According to Richard Vaughan in his "Northwest Greenland, A History", in the early 1900's a Danish explorer, the artist, Harald Moltke, first applied the name, Thule to this area, presumably because here were located the world's northernmost native people. Later Knud Rasmussen and Peter Freuchen used the name for their famous trading post." A Nova Zembla is also apparently some sort of Rhododendron

From Nabokov-L
"EDITOR'S NOTE: Sam Schuman's posting below is in reply to Donald Harington's horticultural query re "Nova Zembla." In his 1981 note Schuman quotes Field's NABOKV: HIS LIFE IN PART where Field tells of VN's Great-grandfather (1795-1873) participated in an expedition to Novaya Zemlya where a river was named for him. VN gives the same information in Chapter III of SPEAK, MEMORY. Boyd points out that VN was mistaken. VN's ancestor did not participate in the expedition, although the river was named for him by his friend, the expedition leader. VN was mulling over PALE FIRE at the time he learned of his ancestor's connection with Nova Zembla. AS to the Rhododendron named "Nova Zembla," my guess would be that the cultivar might be descended from a species originating in Novaya Zemlya and perhaps first described as a result of the early expedition.

"It shouldn't be too hard for a plant taxonomist to trace the history of the name. If the 'Nova Zembla' name is relatively recent, there might be some connection with VN's SPEAK, MEMORY. If not, my historical guess might be right. DBJ

"From: SSCHUMAN@unca.edu In the Spring, 1981 issue of the NVRN (now Nabokovian) I had a little note called 'Another "Nova Zembla",' on just this subject (hardly the sort of earth-shaking publication anyone remembers!). My conclusion: A true Kinbotian plant--one horticultural direction urges to 'give them some shade.'" The Zemblan language is a combination of northern tongues including German, Russian, Dutch, and so forth. See Commentary note to line 615, p 235 for Zemblan language linkages.

Brian Boyd relates a story in his Magic of Artistic Discovery concerning "a seed that nearly sprouted another way":

"Zembla occurs in an article published on July 30, 1939, in the Paris-based Russian émigré daily Poslednie novosti, to which Nabokov contributed. The article recalls the first days of the League of Nations, when each nation was entitled to five seats for its delegates: 'Those who were not members of the delegation could occupy the peripheral seats where one could see or hear nothing. Daniele Varé, a member of the Italian secretariat, decided to take the vacant seats behind the Venezuela delegation for his compatriots. He sneaked into the Assembly Hall at night and on a placard where the name of a country was to be displayed, wrote "Zembla." On the following day, pundits cast one quick glance at the placard and nodded significantly, "Zembla, of course"'. Since Nabokov began working later in 1939 on his last, abandoned Russian novel, _Solus Rex_, which revolves around Ultima Thule and eventually in _Pale Fire_ would evolve into Zembla, it seems quite possible this strange intrusion of an almost legendary land into modern politics may have precipitated something in his imagination and lingered there quietly in suspended germination for twenty years." (Boyd, p. 80 quoting from Barabtarlo and Shikhovtsev, "The Republic of Zembla", 1987, 54-56).