As promised, I should like to take you on a tour of my 1578 map of Iceland and the enchanting beastly hybrids and sea monsters depicted therein. Get ready for weird.

We shall start off lightly, with a bull frolicking in the sea. It was thought that all creatures on land had their equivalent in the sea. Unusually, this bull is not a hybrid aquatic bull. It is a land bull, but in the sea.

This is more like it. A ferocious canid with furred tail. Around the 16th C, mapmakers did take some poetic license with depiction of animals. This may be a sea-hyena.

In medieval and Renaissance times, whales and walruses were considered to be monsters. This fearsome hybrid walrus (are those muscled arms, or dodo wings that could never lift its body?) has been depicted with tusks coming painfully out of its nose.

Sea monsters were depicted on maps to illustrate the dangers of the sea, and sometimes to mark unknown and uncharted areas. This lion-fish hybrid seems better suited to the sea than the giant land-bull we saw earlier. Almost noble, this one.

This is what you've been waiting for. An unholy whale, water streaming Timotei-like from its blowholes. Guillaume le Clerc wrote in 13C that whales float until their backs are covered in sand and hapless sailors mistake them for islands to visit, whereupon they are consumed.

Ah... a narwhal. A real creature, of sorts. Legend has it that eating of its flesh results in immediate death. However, the spiralled tusk was also held to be a good antidote and powerful medicine against poison. Sometimes this tusk was sold as unicorn horn.

You want more whales? We got whales. To be fair, there is a lot of whale activity in Iceland's watery terrain. Portrayals of whales and other aquatic creatures became more realistic in maps of the 17th century - which is a shame.

Note on the above: This one isn't just any old whale. It's a KRAKEN. The Kraken can take multiple forms, such as a squid or - in this case - the largest whale on the map. The Hafgufa was a sea monster from the medieval north which evolved into the Kraken.

In 13C Bartholomaeus Anglicus wrote: "there is a great fish in the sea, that hight Bellua, that casteth out water at his jaws with vapour of good smell, and other fish feel the smell and follow him, and he swalloweth them and is so fed with them"

Note on the above: This beast was known as the 'Burchvalur'. Its teeth were sold as scrimshaw, which is the name given to whale and walrus teeth that have been carved. It was a way for sailors to pass time and make coin. The Lewis Chessmen are examples of scrimshaw.

And now for something different. A gorgeous seahorse! Hippocampus - from Hippos for horse and Campus for seamonster.

Okay, now it's time to get really weird. Mariana Trench WTFIT weird. This giant ray was said to overturn ships with its fins, and Iceland's water do home the starry ray, which I believe is used in cooking to this day.

Our tour of Andreas Villeius's famous 1578 map of Islandia is almost over, so let's take it down a notch with some polar bears. What are those two doing? They are wrestling, yes?

... and, to round things off, Villeius even included terrestrial objects of interest like this magnificently erupting volcano!

And thus the tour concludes of Andreas Villeius' iconic 16th century map of Iceland. The sea creatures were removed from the map in Johann Jansson’s 1612 version, but we shall honour them always. Maps should always and forever have monsters, for there will always be the unknown.

It's been a wild ride, everyone. Thank you for coming, and please collect your coats and bags on departure.

SURPRISE UPDATE FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO KEEP WATCHING AFTER THE CREDITS. After I'd completed my tour of this 16th century map, having conducted online research, husband quietly laid these two books on my desk.