Im sorry but... I really get this map of Scandinavia

by RimealotIV

I have been looking at old maps of Scandinavia, and i ran into "ptolemy-map-of-scandinavia-by-martin-waldseemuller"
I get lots of it, there is Ireland, Britain, Denmark, northern Germany and the Baltic coast up to... gulf of Riga at least.
I even get most of southern Sweden, for the most part, but the rest i dont even know what its trying to depict, what is Norway? what is northern Sweden?

If someone has a understanding of what this map is trying to convey please fill me in because Im clueless

Platypuskeeper

That map is an 'improved' version of this older map, which is actually better, so you may want to start looking at it a bit. Greenland is in a more sensible place.

The Gulf of Riga isn't really on the map, "Riga" is marked to the east of the island of Gottia (Gotland) which is correct in terms of latitude but the Baltic coast is pretty flat there.

Gotland has been conflated with Götaland, and the name "Gottia Meridionalis" (Southern 'Gottia') has been invented here as a term for Småland. South of it is Scania and Datia (which they appears to be the term for Denmark here) grouped together with Blekinge and Halland into one unit corresponding to contemporary Danish territory on the peninsula. Apparently as a result of equating Gotland and Götaland, "Gottia Occidentalis" (West 'Gottia') is now west of Gotland but in the east of the peninsula, unlike Västergötland. Sweden (Suetia) is mysteriously west of there. This is not Sweden as a whole (clearly since Götaland was well integrated into the kingdom by then) but "Sweden-proper" since it only seems to imply the provinces surrounding lake Mälaren, which has its outlet in the east at Stockholm to the Baltic. What seems to have happened here is that Mälaren, the central lake of Sweden-Proper has been confused with Vänern, the central lake of Västergötland with its outlet through Göta Älv in the west. "Ussalia" (Uppsala) is on a tributary to the lake that runs out in the sea, which is true (but for läke Mälaren). Meanwhile, one of the smaller name I can make out here (the resolution is a bit too low) is Arosia on the peninsula jutting into the sea north of Gotland, which is the Latin name for Västerås, which is well inside lake Mälaren. So that's very confused for sure.

The bay stretching northwest of there may represent the gulf of Bothnia, as it separates the Swedish mainland from "Finlappeland" (Finland), and the bya stretching eastwards (and then, south, mysteriously) is the Gulf of Finland conflated with the Gulf of Riga as the peninsula there is marked "livonia". This is confused as it also says that much farther south, and it also says 'virona' (Vironia) south of there too, although that's inside the Gulf of Finland.

North of "Suetia" is "Vermelant" (Värmland). In "Finlappeland" or north of it you have "Gottia (or Goltia?) Orientalis" - Which is probably the name of Östergötland confused with the location of Österbotten ([Ostrobothnia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrobothnia_(region)). Further north there's "Pilappelandt" which I assume is Lapland and "Engronelandt" (Greenland). Iceland was known to be an island but Greenland was not; the lands were thought to be connected in the north, but the map seems to skew going north into going west here once you're north of Finland. "Engronelandt" is also "congelatum" (frozen)

West of "Suetia" you have "Norbegia" (Norway) which is occupying the region north of Göta Älv while Denmark has the region south of it. Farther east is "Thyle" (the fictional Thule) North of Norway is another "Engroneland", confusingly enough. The gulf north of Norway might represent the White Sea.

Some of these duplicated names seem to come about from the attempts to improve on the map this is based on. The Gulf of Finland was introduced for instance but the locations of Livonia and Vironia relative it were wrong.