Lyonesse ( /liːɒˈnɛs/ ''lee-uh-NESS'') is a kingdom which, according to legend, consisted of a long strand of land stretching from

Land's End Land's End ( or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...

at the southwestern tip of

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England, to what is now the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly ( ; ) are a small archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, St Agnes, is over farther south than the most southerly point of the Great Britain, British mainla ...

in the

Celtic Sea The Celtic Sea is the area of the Atlantic Ocean off the southern coast of Ireland bounded to the north by St George's Channel, Saint George's Channel; other limits include the Bristol Channel, the English Channel, and the Bay of Biscay, as wel ...

portion of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. It was considered lost after being swallowed by the ocean in a single night. The people of Lyonesse were said to live in fair towns, with over 140 churches, and work in fertile, low-lying plains. Lyonesse's most significant attraction was a castle-like cathedral that was presumably built on top of what is now the

Seven Stones Reef The Seven Stones reef is a rocky reef nearly west of Land's End, Cornwall and east-northeast of the Isles of Scilly. The reef consists of two groups of rocks and is nearly long and in breadth. They rise out of deep water and are a navigationa ...

between Land's End and the Isles of Scilly, some west of Land's End and north-east of the Isles of Scilly. It is sometimes spelled ''Lionesse''. Lyonesse is mentioned in

Arthurian legend The Matter of Britain (; ; ; ) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. The 12th-century writer Geoffr ...

, specifically in the tragic love-and-loss story of

Tristan and Iseult Tristan and Iseult, also known as Tristan and Isolde and other names, is a medieval chivalric romance told in numerous variations since the 12th century. Of disputed source, usually assumed to be primarily Celtic nations, Celtic, the tale is a ...

. It was the home of the hero

Tristan Tristan (Latin/ Brythonic: ''Drustanus''; ; ), also known as Tristran or Tristram and similar names, is the folk hero of the legend of Tristan and Iseult. While escorting the Irish princess Iseult to wed Tristan's uncle, King Mark of ...

(one of the

Knights of the Round Table The Knights of the Round Table (, , ) are the legendary knights of the fellowship of King Arthur that first appeared in the Matter of Britain literature in the mid-12th century. The Knights are a chivalric order dedicated to ensuring the peace ...

), whose father

Meliodas Meliodas or Meliadus is a figure in Arthurian legend in the 12th-century Prose ''Tristan'' and subsequent accounts. In Thomas Malory's ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', he is the second king of Lyonesse, son of Felec of Cornwall and vassal of King Mark. Meli ...

was king of Lyonesse. After the death of Meliodas, Tristan became the heir of Lyonesse, but he was never to take up his inheritance because the land sank beneath the sea while he was away at his uncle King Mark's court in Cornwall. In later traditions, Lyonesse is said to have sunk beneath the waves in a single night, but stories differ as to whether this catastrophic event occurred on 11 November 1099, or 10 years earlier. According to one legend, the people of Lyonesse had committed a crime so terrible that God took his revenge against them and their kingdom. The exact nature of the crime is never specified, but the legend tells of a horrific storm that occurred over the course of a single night, resulting in an enormous wave that swallowed the kingdom.

The sole survivor

Local Cornwall village tourism guides offer stories of a man who escaped the storm and a subsequent wave while riding a white horse. Apparently, the horse lost one of its shoes during the escape. The rider's name is thought to be Trevelyan (or Trevilian). The rider had been out hunting during the day and had fallen asleep under a tree. Trevelyan was awoken by a horrible noise and raced across the land to higher ground. This story is linked to local Cornish families who have used the image of three horseshoes as part of their family crest for generations. One family in particular goes by the name Vyvyan, and is one of Cornwall's oldest families; they also have a crest of a white horse and claim to be descendants of the sole survivor, Trevelyan. The Vyvyan family claims that Trevelyan was the last governor of the lost kingdom before Lyonesse was swallowed by the ocean. Today, many myths and legends continue to arise about Lyonesse without physical evidence. Included among these legends are tales of local fishermen who claim that on calm days, one can still hear the bells of the many churches softly ringing in the seas off the west Cornish coast. Local fishermen also claim that they have caught glass, forks, and wood in their fishing nets.

The Lyonesse Project

A 2009–13 joint study titled ''The Lyonesse Project: A Study of the Coastal and Marine Environment of the Isles of Scilly'' was commissioned by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

and carried out by the Historic Environment Projects,

Cornwall Council Cornwall Council ( ), known between 1889 and 2009 as Cornwall County Council (), is the local authority which governs the non-metropolitan county of Cornwall in South West England. Since 2009 it has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary ...

, with a team of academics, local experts, and enthusiasts "to reconstruct the evolution of the physical environment of the Isles of Scilly during the

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

, the progressive occupation of this changing coastal landscape by early peoples, and their response to marine inundation and changing marine resource availability." The project found that while much of the story of Lyonesse can be "dismissed as fantasy", an overflow of legends and memories of submergences is common throughout the northwestern portion of Europe. It concluded that the Isles of Scilly were once a single large island, which separated into smaller islands due to the rapid sea-level rise. Stone walls have been located under the water in the vicinity of the Isles of Scilly, which support the findings that sea level rises impacted the towns of the area, although whether they are evidence of buildings or the remains of medieval fish traps remains unclear.

Lyonesse in Arthurian legend

In medieval Arthurian legend, no references are made to the sinking of Lyonesse, because the name originally referred to a still-existing place. Lyonesse is an English alteration of French Léoneis or Léonois (earlier Loönois), a development of ''Lodonesia'', the Latin name for

Lothian Lothian (; ; ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, while other signific ...

in Scotland. Continental writers of Arthurian romances were often puzzled by the internal geography of Great Britain; thus it is that the author of the French Prose ''Tristan'' appears to place Léonois beside Cornwall. In English adaptations of the French tales, Léonois, now "Lyonesse", becomes a kingdom wholly distinct from Lothian, and closely associated with the Cornish region, though its exact geographical location remained unspecified. The name was not attached to Cornish legends of lost coastal lands until the reign of

Elizabeth I of England Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudor. Her eventful reign, and its effect on history ...

. However, the legendary lost land between Land's End and Scilly has a distinct Cornish name: ''Lethowsow''. This derives from the Cornish name for the

, on the reputed site of the lost land's capital and the site of the notorious wreck of the . The name means 'the milky ones', from the constant white water surrounding the reef.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of ...

's Arthurian epic ''

Idylls of the King ''Idylls of the King'', published between 1859 and 1885, is a cycle of twelve narrative poems by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892; Poet Laureate from 1850) which retells the legend of King Arthur, his knights, his love f ...

'' describes Lyonesse as the site of the final battle between King Arthur and

Mordred Mordred or Modred ( or ; Welsh: ''Medraut'' or ''Medrawt'') is a major figure in the legend of King Arthur. The earliest known mention of a possibly historical Medraut is in the Welsh chronicle ''Annales Cambriae'', wherein he and Arthur are a ...

(King Arthur's nephew and illegitimate son). One passage in particular references legends of Lyonesse and its rise from (and subsequent return to) the ocean:

Then rose the King and moved his host by night And ever pushed Sir Mordred, league by league, Back to the sunset bound of Lyonesse— A land of old upheaven from the abyss By fire, to sink into the abyss again; Where fragments of forgotten peoples dwelt, And the long mountains ended in a coast Of ever-shifting sand, and far away The phantom circle of a moaning sea.

Analogues in Celtic mythology

The legend of a sunken kingdom appears in Cornish,

Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally **Breton people **Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Gale ...

and Welsh mythologies. In Christian times, it came to be viewed as a sort of Cornish

Sodom and Gomorrah In the Abrahamic religions, Sodom and Gomorrah () were two cities destroyed by God for their wickedness. Sodom and Gomorrah are repeatedly invoked throughout the Hebrew Bible, Deuterocanonical texts, and the New Testament as symbols of sin, di ...

, an example of divine wrath provoked by unvirtuous living. A Breton parallel is found in the tale of the Cité d' Ys or Ker Ys, similarly drowned as a result of its debauchery, with a single virtuous survivor, King

Gradlon Gradlon the Great (''Gradlon Meur'') was a semi-legendary 5th century "king" of Cornouaille who became the hero of many Breton folk stories. The most famous of these legends is the story of the sunken city of Ys. He is supposed to have been the ...

, escaping on a horse. According to Welsh legend, the kingdom of

Cantre'r Gwaelod , also known as or , is a legendary ancient sunken kingdom said to have occupied a tract of fertile land lying between Ramsey Island and Bardsey Island in what is now Cardigan Bay to the west of Wales. It has been described as a "Welsh Atla ...

Cardigan Bay Cardigan Bay () is a large inlet of the Irish Sea, indenting the west coast of Wales between Bardsey Island, Gwynedd in the north, and Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire at its southern end. It is the largest bay in Wales. Geography Cardigan Bay ha ...

was drowned due to the drunkard negligence of its prince,

Seithenyn Seithenyn (sometimes spelt Seithennin) sometimes known as ''Seithenyn of the feeble mind'' is a figure from Welsh legend, apparently contemporary with King Gwyddno Garanhir. He is mentioned in a poem in the Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin (Black Book of C ...

, who allowed the sea to sweep through the floodgates. The tale of Lyonesse is sometimes suggested to represent an extraordinary survival of folk memory of the flooding of the Isles of Scilly and

Mount's Bay Mount's Bay () is a bay on the English Channel coast of Cornwall, England, stretching from the Lizard Point, Cornwall, Lizard Point to Gwennap Head. In the north of the bay, near Marazion, is St Michael's Mount; the origin of name of the bay. ...

near Penzance when the sea levels rose during the Bronze Age. For example, the Cornish name of

St Michael's Mount St Michael's Mount (, meaning "Hoarfrost, hoar rock in woodland") is a tidal island in Mount's Bay near Penzance, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The island is a Civil parishes in England, civil parish and is linked to the town of Marazion ...

is ''Karrek Loos y'n Koos'' – literally "the grey rock in the wood", suggesting that the bay was once a forest. According to local tourism guides in the region, Lyonesse was once connected to the west of Cornwall and is firmly rooted in Cornwall's traditions and mythology.

Cornish people Cornish people or the Cornish (, ) are an ethnic group native to, or associated with Cornwall: and a recognised national minority in the United Kingdom, which (like the Welsh people, Welsh and Breton people, Bretons) can trace its roots to ...

around Penzance still get occasional glimpses at extreme low water of a sunken forest in Mount's Bay, where petrified tree stumps become visible adjacent to the Celtic Sea.

John of Worcester John of Worcester (died c. 1140) was an English monk and chronicler who worked at Worcester Priory. He is now usually held to be the author of the . Works John of Worcester's principal work was the (Latin for "Chronicle from Chronicles") or ...

, a famous English monk and chronicler, wrote in 1099 that

(now an island in Mount's Bay) was five or six miles from the sea, enclosed in a thick wood. The importance of the maintenance of this memory can be seen in that it came to be associated with the legendary

Brython The Britons ( *''Pritanī'', , ), also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons, were the Celtic people who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age until the High Middle Ages, at which point they diverged into the Welsh, ...

hero Arthur, although the date of its inundation is actually c. 2500 BC.

Cultural references

In literature

* '' Dawn in Lyonesse'' is a 1938 short novel by

Mary Ellen Chase Mary Ellen Chase (24 February 1887 – 28 July 1973) was an American educator, teacher, scholar, and author. She is regarded as one of the most important regional New England literary figures of the early twentieth century. Early life Chase was ...

. * Edith Oliver writes about a vision of Lyonesse in her 1938 autobiography, ''Without Knowing Mr Walkley.'' * The ''

Lyonesse Trilogy The ''Lyonesse Trilogy'' is a group of three fantasy novels by Jack Vance, set in the European Dark Ages, in the mythical Elder Isles west of France and southwest of Britain, a generation or two before the birth of King Arthur. The stories cont ...

'' is a group of three novels by

Jack Vance John Holbrook Vance (August 28, 1916 – May 26, 2013) was an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writer. He also wrote several mystery novels under pen names, including Ellery Queen. Vance won the World Fantasy Award for Life Ach ...

. * ''Lyonesse: The Well Between the Worlds'' (2009) and ''Lyonesse: Dark Solstice'' (2010) are two children's books by

Sam Llewellyn Sam Llewellyn (born 1948) is a British author of literature for children and adults. Biography Sam Llewellyn was born on Tresco, Isles of Scilly, where his ancestors lived for many years. He grew up in Norfolk. He attended Eton College and late ...

. * The 2012 manga series '' The Seven Deadly Sins'' is set in the kingdom of Liones, which is placed in the north of Britannia. *In the 1995 film ''

First Knight ''First Knight'' is a 1995 medieval historical drama film based on Arthurian legend, directed by Jerry Zucker. It stars Sean Connery as King Arthur, Richard Gere as Lancelot, Julia Ormond as Guinevere and Ben Cross as Malagant. The film follow ...

'', before her marriage to

King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...

Guinevere Guinevere ( ; ; , ), also often written in Modern English as Guenevere or Guenever, was, according to Arthurian legend, an early-medieval queen of Great Britain and the wife of King Arthur. First mentioned in literature in the early 12th cen ...

rules as "Lady of Lyonesse".

In poetry

*''

Tristram of Lyonesse ''Tristram of Lyonesse'' is a long epic poem written by the British poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, that recounts in grand fashion the famous medieval story of the ill-fated lovers Tristan and Isolde (Tristram and Iseult in Swinburne's version ...

'' (1882) is an epic poem by

Algernon Charles Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist and critic. He wrote many plays – all tragedies – and collections of poetry such as '' Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the Eleve ...

. * ''When I Set out for Lyonnesse'' (1914) is by

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

. An edition published in 1932 adds the year 1870 to the title, a reference to Hardy's trip to

St Juliot St Juliot is a civil parishes in England, civil parish in north-east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish is entirely rural and the settlements within it are the hamlets of Beeny and Tresparrett. - plus a part of the adjacent village of ...

, where he met his first wife

Emma Gifford Emma Lavinia Gifford (24 November 1840 – 27 November 1912) was an English writer and suffragist. She was also the first wife of the novelist and poet Thomas Hardy. Early life Emma Gifford was born in Plymouth, Devon, on 24 November 1840 The ...

. The poem said Lyonnesse is "a hundred miles away"; the straight-line distance from St Juliot to Dorchester is 97 miles. * ''Sunk Lyonesse'' (1922), by

Walter de la Mare Walter John de la Mare (; 25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was an English poet, short story writer and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for his psychological horror short fi ...

* ''Lyonnesse'' (1962), by

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet and author. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for '' The Colossus and Other Poems'' (1960), '' Ariel'' (1965), a ...

* ''Lyonnesse'' (2021), by

Penelope Shuttle Penelope Shuttle (born 12 May 1947) is an English poet and author. She has published fifteen volumes of poetry, plus two selected volumes, and six works of fiction. She has won the Eric Gregory Award and the Cholmondeley Award and has been sho ...

In music

* "Lyonesse", a song by Cornish folk composer

Richard Gendall Professor Richard Roscow Morris "Dick" Gendall (12 April 1924 – 12 September 2017) was a British expert on the Cornish language. He was the third of four children and the only son of the Reverend Philip Parsons Gendall and Mary EB Hand. His fath ...

, appears as the title track of the 1982 album by

Brenda Wootton Brenda Wootton (née Ellery) (10 February 1928 – 11 March 1994) was a Cornish folk singer Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th- ...

. * "When I Set out for Lyonnesse" is a setting of Hardy's poem by English composer

Gerald Finzi Gerald Raphael Finzi (14 July 1901 – 27 September 1956) was a British composer. Finzi is best known as a choral composer, but also wrote in other genres. Large-scale compositions by Finzi include the cantata '' Dies natalis'' for solo voice and ...

in his 1936 song cycle '' Earth and Air and Rain'' * "Lyonesse", a track on instrumental

post-rock Post-rock is a subgenre of experimental rock that emphasizes Texture (music), texture, atmosphere, and non-traditional song structures over conventional rock techniques. Post-rock artists often combine rock instrumentation and rock stylings wit ...

band

65daysofstatic 65daysofstatic (often abbreviated as 65dos, 65days, or simply 65) are a post-rock band from Sheffield, England. Formed in 2001, the band is composed of instrumentalists Paul Wolinski, Joe Shrewsbury, Rob Jones and Simon Wright. The band's mus ...

's third album

The Destruction of Small Ideas ''The Destruction of Small Ideas'' is the third studio album by 65daysofstatic. It was released on April 30, 2007, in the United Kingdom, May 1, 2007 in the United States on Monotreme, and April 23, 2007, in Japan on Zankyo. " Don't Go Down to ...

. * "The Bells of Lyonesse", a song by German progressive metal band

Subsignal Subsignal is a German progressive rock band. The band was originally formed as a side project by Sieges Even members Arno Menses (vocals) and Markus Steffen (guitars). After their main band disbanded, Menses and Steffen recruited former Dreamsc ...

, which appears on their 2018 album ''La Muerta''.

In transport

* '' ''SS'' Lyonesse'' was a steam ferry of the

West Cornwall Steam Ship Company The West Cornwall Steam Ship Company was established in 1870 to operate ferry services between Penzance, Cornwall, and the Isles of Scilly. It became the West Cornwall Steamship Company in 1907 and was wound up in 1917. History The company was ...

. * ''Lyonesse'': Great Western Railway ''Bulldog'' class steam locomotive no. 3361 * ''Lyonnesse'': Southern Railway ''King Arthur'' class steam locomotive no. 743 * ''Lyonnesse'': British Railways standard class 5 steam locomotive no. 73113.