Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

This was a great read. I certainly found it extremely interesting. The best part was just how much I learnt from reading it and it kept my attention throughout. I loved learning about some very enlightening history and facts. I especially loved the section on Alaska. I slowed down my reading of this book to try and absorb all the wonderful knowledge. It's a book that you can read time and time again. There was plenty to learn and I enjoyed the authors' style of writing. There was never a dull moment. I recommend reading this book as it's great for learning new things and is so well written. 

So much praise goes out to the author and publishers for bringing us this very interesting book.
The above review has already been placed on goodreads,waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/extreme-north-by-bernd-brunner-w-w-norton-4-stars under ladyreading365

This book was not an easy read. Some parts were dry and nothing was particularly new or a revelation for those who have already dug into Northern European history. I requested it hoping for...I'm not sure what, but not this.
It would be an alright primer for something interested in learning beyond the History Channels entertainment.

I thought this an interesting read. The author throws up a lot of ideas, and has obviously done serious in-depth research.

He challenges the concepts "westerners" have of the North, without being massively revelatory. Here, the North is seen primarily (and initially) from the view point of Europe. The Greeks and Romans, then as the borders were pushed back and the world expanded, from the viewpoint of those living in what is now modern Germany, the UK, Denmark and Poland.

I found the 17th Century figure of Ole Worms very interesting, and there is quite a few references back to him throughout the book. His name was new to me, but seemingly very important in his time for "northern knowledge".

As the book develops, we move away from the image of the all-conquering, bemuscled Viking behemoth, to the burgeoning tourist and travel industry to Scandanavia and beyond, how the North became somewhat like the Grand Tour of Italy, and how increasing contact led to the forging of fables (Ossian), and cultural appropriation and corruption of various Nordic myths, most notably by pre-twentieth century individuals like Wagner, and Houston Chamberlain, and the pan-German Volkisch movements.

Later, we read of the Arctic North, how explorers "discovered" the North Pole and indigenous peoples, leading to yet another view of the North. We also get to read of the lives of the women (unfortunately never prioritised in history), the hospitality experienced by travellers, and the exaggerated tales of bucolic harmony they returned with.

Overall, a very good primer on the North, and a useful read to understand some of the political currents of today. Some parts are a little heavy-going, but the author does extremely well in keeping all the various stories, competing movements and trends in balance. I would definitely recommend it.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC to me.

Bernd Brunner’s Extreme North considers how our notions of the North have developed and changed over the centuries and amongst different people; from the source material for literary epics to rival the Greeks to the myth-making factory of the Third Reich. As with many histories revolving around a changing idea, the sources employed and their thematic groupings can feel scattered, producing an overall sense of how ideas of the North took hold but without a strong central narrative. Brunner is aided in gathering up the loose threads of these ideas by concentrating on medieval to modern sources, largely those coming from Europe and North America, and given the scale of the question he asks, one can not begrudge him too much for these limitations. Work focusing more on African, Asian, and South American conceptions of the North would make a profitable comparison.
Though the range of sources, both primary and secondary, is doubtless impressive, it can at times leave the book feeling encyclopaedic rather than one to be consumed cover-to-cover. This feeling is accentuated by frequent short chapters that have the quality of encyclopaedic entries; a structure that breaks the book into analytical and narrative sections that can be difficult to explicitly relate. However, this does not prevent these individual ‘entries’ from proving compelling or useful, even if not easily worked into a larger arc. Indeed, this structure mirrors the collection of Ole Worm, the early-modern professor and keeper of Northern curiosities, with which the book begins and ends. Worm’s collection was eclectic, taking in the cultural productions, arts, and wildlife of the regions it sought to represent. Extreme North is its own such museum in miniature, and each reader will have to decide whether they can contend with Brunner’s scattered collection.
If one can accept the structure then the book has many threads to pull – from the shift away from the classical world to the fabricated Ossian of Scotland in the eighteenth century, the fabled Nordic Atlantis that was still being referenced in the twentieth, or the way in which a corrupted Norse mythology has been put to work by ignorant extremists in our own time. Brunner also makes a contribution towards our understanding of the global North-South divide, as opposed to the more commonly referenced East-West. Though Extreme North is not a comparative work in this sense, it does help to explain some of the historical antecedence for the view of the global North as wealthier and less troubled than the global South, which helps to put some of our debates on inequality today into greater context.
Perhaps most significantly, in writing about a space that is dominated in many minds by the largely white countries of Scandinavia, the hyper-masculine Vikings, and rugged men with an Amundsen-shape, Brunner is still able to explore the lives of women, native peoples of the remote North, and people of colour. In this, Brunner is able to not only examine how our notions of North came to be, but also how notions ought to change.

What is wrong with me? Why didn't I read this book immediately when I received a copy. Waiting a few weeks was a dumb idea. Read it now! You're welcome

I loved this book. It seems Vikings and their tales have dominated a large portion of non-fic literature and pop culture over the last decade and this book addresses the North from an entirely different lens. Brunner examines everything from the etymology of the word "North", the modern interpretations of Northern nations and their politics, and how the history and mythologies of the North have been used by all sides of the political spectrum to argue a right to belonging or dominance.

It was intriguing to see all the different conceptualizations that there have been of the “north” (which in this book’s case, turned out to mainly be Scandinavia) through the centuries, and how it continues to have a myriad of different meanings in contemporary times. However, the large number of women and men that he covers and their respective conceptualizations of the north made this a dense read at times. There were quite a few instances where the book felt like it was jumping rapidfire from person to person to person to person to new person and their respective projected fantasy, with me having barely any time to process what I had just previously read. By the closing chapter I was admittedly having a little trouble absorbing very much of everything, much less processing, like water being poured on an already saturated sponge.

In the end though, there was quite a lot that I was able to learn here. I do also definitely appreciate how I'm now not only thinking a little more about the many and often contradicting ideas of "north" that I have encountered over the course of my own lifetime, but also thinking about the conceptual fantasies of various regions, and what is mentally evoked by notions of "south" or "east." So overall, a good, thought-provoking read, albeit one that may be best enjoyed when consumed in small installments.