Balnibarbi
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Balnibarbi is a fictional land in
Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...
's 1726 satirical novel ''
Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', originally titled ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'', is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clerg ...
''. it was visited by Lemuel Gulliver after he was rescued by the people of the flying island of Laputa.


Location

The location of Balnibarbi is illustrated in both the text and the map at the beginning of part III of ''Gulliver's Travels'', though they are not consistent with each other. The map shows Balnibarbi to be an island to the east of
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
and to the northeast of Luggnagg. The text states that the kingdom of Balnibarbi is part of a continent which extends itself "eastward to that unknown tract of America westward of
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
and northward of the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
",GT, part III, ch 7: OWC p180 and places it southeast of Luggnagg, which is "situated to the North-West". Gulliver gives his last known position (taken the morning “an hour before” he was captured by the pirates who set him adrift) as 46°N 183°(E)GT, part III, ch 1: OWC p143 (i.e. east of Japan, south of the Aleutian Islands) and was picked up by the inhabitants of Laputa just 5 days later, having drifted south-south-east down a chain of small rocky islands Gulliver also tells us that the island of Laputa flies by the “magnetick virtue” of certain minerals in the ground of Balnibarbi and does not extend more than four miles above, and six leagues beyond the limit of the kingdom. He states the Pacific coast, where lies the port of Maldonada, is not above one hundred and fifty miles from the capital,
Lagado Lagado is a fictional city from the 1726 satirical novel ''Gulliver's Travels'' by Jonathan Swift. Location Lagado is the capital of the nation Balnibarbi, which is ruled by a tyrannical king from a flying island called Laputa. Lagado is on the ...
.


Description

Gulliver describes the land of Balnibarbi as "a land unhappily cultivated, with houses ill-contrived and ruinous, and its people’s countenances expressing misery and want". He found its method of farming "unaccountable".GT pt III, ch 4: OWC p163 The exception to this was the estate of his guide, the Lord Munodi, a person of the first rank who had been governor of
Lagado Lagado is a fictional city from the 1726 satirical novel ''Gulliver's Travels'' by Jonathan Swift. Location Lagado is the capital of the nation Balnibarbi, which is ruled by a tyrannical king from a flying island called Laputa. Lagado is on the ...
, but had been dismissed for insufficiency by a cabal of ministers. He had been treated with tenderness by the king, but held in low understanding. These estates were wholly different to the land as a whole, being "a most beautiful country, with houses neatly built, fields enclosed, containing vineyards, corn-grounds and meadows". However Munodi reported that he was under pressure to tear down his house and tenant farms and rebuild them in the modern manner, or be censured for pride and incur the wrath of his majesty. Munodi explained that some forty years previously, some persons from the land had travelled to the flying island, and having come back with ”a very little smattering of mathematicks” but full of “volatile spirits” acquired in that region, had come to dislike the management of all things below, and fell to forming schemes to put “all arts, sciences, languages and mechanicks” on a new footing. To this end they had created an Academy of Projectors, from which a steady stream of projects, designed to let “one man do the works of ten” and “let the fruits of the earth come to maturity at whatever season” thought fit, and to increase production “an hundred-fold”, to “let a palace be built in a week”, and to create materials “so durable as to last forever”. Unfortunately, the only inconvenience being that none of these projects were yet brought to perfection, and in the meantime the whole country lay waste.


Maldonada

Maldonada is a fictional city described as the main port of Balnibarbi. Its location is illustrated in both the text and the maps in Part III of ''Gulliver's Travels'', though they are not consistent with each other. Maldonada is described in the text as being 150 miles from the capital,
Lagado Lagado is a fictional city from the 1726 satirical novel ''Gulliver's Travels'' by Jonathan Swift. Location Lagado is the capital of the nation Balnibarbi, which is ruled by a tyrannical king from a flying island called Laputa. Lagado is on the ...
, on the kingdom's
Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...
coast (i.e., to the south) and that the island of Luggnagg, which is 100 leagues distant to the north-west. and is said to be 5 leagues distant from the island of Glubdubdrib, to the southwest. However, the map at the beginning of Pt III places Maldonada on the south-west coast of Luggnagg, with Glubdubdrib to the southwest of that island. A further map, of the kingdom of Balnibarbi shows the port again, on the kingdom's south-east coast, but names it “Malonada”. Maldonada is described as being “a good port, with much commerce with the great kingdom of Luggnagg”. Gulliver tells us it is “about as large as Portsmouth”.GT, pt III, ch 7: OWC p180 Maldonada was Gulliver's departure point for his visit to Glubdubdrib, and later, on his return, for his voyage to Luggnagg.


Satire

The target of Swift's satire in Balnibarbi is its “Projectors” (who are described as "inventors or planners of political, social, financial or scientific schemes... which are wild or impractical") rather than science per se, which is generally commended: He also “aim(s) to discredit the Newtonian Whig intelligentsia...and to ridicule anything remotely connected to the Dutch”: Higgins reports scholars have identified the academy as referring to the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
in London, the Dublin Philosophical Society, and the University of Leiden. Higgins further states that Swift's satire “describes or is based on actual contemporary experiments reported (by) the Royal Society”.GT Notes p327


Notes


References

*Jonathan Swift: ''Guliver's Travels'' Oxford World Classics (1986, reprint 2008) introduction by Claude Rawson, explanatory notes by Ian Higgins {{Gulliver's Travels Fictional elements introduced in 1726 Fictional countries Fictional islands Gulliver's Travels locations Fictional kingdoms