Luggnagg is an island kingdom, one of the
imaginary countries visited by
Lemuel Gulliver
Lemuel Gulliver () is the fictional protagonist and narrator of ''Gulliver's Travels'', a novel written by Jonathan Swift, first published in 1726.
In ''Gulliver's Travels''
According to Swift's novel, Gulliver was born in Nottinghamshire c. ...
in the 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 ...
'' by
Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...
author
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 ...
.
Location
The location of Luggnagg 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.
According to the map, Luggnagg is southeast 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 southwest of
Balnibarbi
Balnibarbi is a fictional land in Jonathan Swift's 1726 satirical novel ''Gulliver's Travels''. 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 illus ...
.
The book's text states that Luggnagg is located about one hundred leagues southeast of Japan, but northwest of Balnibarbi and gives its position as 29°N 140°E. The page notes refer to Frederick Bracher's "Maps in Gulliver’s Travels" (1944–45), which examines the problems raised by the maps in ''Gulliver's Travels'', especially those accompanying Part III of the book.
The map also shows the port of
Maldonada in Luggnagg, and the island of
Glubdubdrib to the southwest, while the text is clear those places are in Balnibarbi.
Description
It has two principal ports, Clumegnig on the southeast coast, which is visited by ships from Maldonada (the port city of Balnibarbi), and Glanguenstald in the southwest, which has commerce with Japan. The capital of Luggnagg is Traldragdubb (also pronounced Trildrogdrib).
A sample of the language of Luggnagg is found in the book, on the occasion when Gulliver has an audience with Luggnagg's king, and is described as being very ugly and clumsy for Gulliver to pronounce.
Notable among the inhabitants of Luggnagg are the
struldbruggs, unfortunates who are immortal but suffer the infirmities of old age.
See also
*
Mount Penglai
Penglai ( zh, t=蓬萊仙島, l=Penglai Immortal Island) is a legendary land of Chinese mythology. It is known in Japanese mythology as Hōrai and Bồng Lai in Vietnam. McCullough, Helen. ''Classical Japanese Prose'', p. 570. Stanford Univ. P ...
, an easterly location in Chinese and Japanese mythology where the
Eight Immortals
The Eight Immortals () are a group of legendary ''Xian (Taoism), xian (immortals)'' in Chinese mythology. Each immortal's power can be transferred to a vessel () that can bestow life or destroy evil. Together, these eight vessels are called the ...
lived.
*
Fusang, another location in the further east in Chinese mythology.
Further reading
* "The Allegory of Luggnagg and the Struldbruggs in 'Gulliver's Travels'" by Robert P. Fitzgerald, ''Studies in Philology'', Vol. 65, No. 4 (Jul., 1968), pp. 657-676
* "Licking the Dust in Luggnagg: Swift’s Reflections on the Legacy of King William’s Conquest of Ireland" by Anne Barbeau Gardiner, ''Swift Studies'' 8 (1993): 35-44
References
Sources
*Jonathan Swift: ''Guliver's Travels'' Oxford World Classics (1986, reprint 2008) introduction by Claude Rawson, explanatory notes by Ian Higgins
Fictional elements introduced in 1726
Fictional countries
Fictional islands
Gulliver's Travels locations
Fictional island countries
Fictional kingdoms
{{Fict-location-stub