Editing Jan Mayen (section)

===Unverified "discoveries" of a ''terra nullius''===
{{See also|Terra nullius}}
[[File:Jan mayen egg-oeja hg.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|A beach on Jan Mayen]]
Between the fifth and ninth centuries (400–900 AD), numerous communities of monks originating in Ireland ([[Papar]]) navigated throughout the north Atlantic in leather boats, exploring and sometimes settling in distant islands where their monastic communities could be separated from close contact with others. Strong indicators exist of their presence in the [[Faroe Islands]] and [[Iceland]] before the arrival of the [[Viking]]s, and medieval Gaelic chronicles such as the famous ''[[Brendan the Navigator#The Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot|Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot]]'' testify to the extensive interest in exploration at the time. 

A modern-day trans-Atlantic journey proved the ability of the early navigators to reach all lands of the north Atlantic even further from Ireland than Jan Mayen – and, given favourable winds, at a speed roughly equal to that of modern yachts.<ref>{{citation |last1=Severin |first1=Tim |title=The Brendan Voyage |publisher=Random House |year=2000 |orig-year=1978 }}</ref> Though quite feasible, there is nevertheless no direct physical trace of medieval landings or settlement on Jan Mayen.

The land named ''Svalbarð'' ("cold coast") by the Vikings in the early medieval book [[Landnámabók]] may have been Jan Mayen (instead of [[Spitsbergen]], renamed [[Svalbard]] by the Norwegians in modern times); the distance from Iceland to ''Svalbarð'' mentioned in this book is two days' sailing (with favorable winds), consistent with the approximate {{convert|550|km|abbr=on}} to Jan Mayen and not with the minimum {{convert|1550|km|abbr=on}} to Spitsbergen.<ref name="Wordie">J. M. Wordie (1922), "Jan Mayen Island", ''The Geographical Journal'' Vol 59 (3), pp. 180–194</ref> However much Jan Mayen may have been known in Europe at that time, it was subsequently forgotten for some centuries.

In the 17th century, many claims of the island's rediscovery were made, spurred by the rivalry on the Arctic whaling grounds, and the island received many names. According to [[Thomas Edge]], an early 17th-century whaling captain who was often inaccurate, "William {{sic}} Hudson" discovered the island in 1608 and named it "Hudson's Touches" (or "Tutches"). However, the well-known explorer [[Henry Hudson]] could only have come by on his voyage in 1607 (if he had made an illogical detour) and he made no mention of it in his journal.<ref name="Wordie" />

According to [[William Scoresby]] (1820: p.&nbsp;154), referring to the mistaken belief that the Dutch had discovered the island in 1611, [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]] whalers discovered the island "about the same time" and named it "Trinity Island". Muller (1874: pp.&nbsp;190–191) took this to mean they had come upon Jan Mayen in 1611 or 1612, which was repeated by many subsequent authors. There were, in fact, no Hull whalers in either of these years, the first Hull whaling expedition having been sent to the island only in 1616 (see below). As with the previous claim made by Edge, there is no cartographical or written proof for this supposed discovery.<ref name="Hacq"/>