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35-688: Lyonesse ( /liːɒˈnɛs/ lee-uh-NESS ) is a kingdom which, according to legend, consisted of a long strand of land stretching from Land's End at the southwestern tip of Cornwall , England, to what is now the Isles of Scilly in the Celtic Sea portion of the Atlantic Ocean . 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

70-407: A sheriff ), called the shires of Edinburgh (or Edinburghshire), Haddington (or Haddingtonshire), and Linlithgow (or Linlithgowshire). Each of these three counties had an informal alternative name referencing their position within the former province of Lothian: Edinburghshire was also known as Midlothian , Haddingtonshire as East Lothian , and Linlithgowshire as West Lothian . The city of Edinburgh

105-657: A development of Lodonesia , the Latin name for Lothian 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

140-448: 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

175-550: A sunken forest in Mount's Bay, where petrified tree stumps become visible adjacent to the Celtic Sea. John of Worcester , a famous English monk and chronicler, wrote in 1099 that St Michael's Mount (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 hero Arthur, although

210-532: A sunken kingdom appears in Cornish , Breton and Welsh mythologies. In Christian times, it came to be viewed as a sort of Cornish Sodom and Gomorrah , 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 , escaping on a horse. According to Welsh legend,

245-575: A watercourse that flows through the region, now known as the Lothian Burn, the name of which comes from either the British lutna meaning "dark or muddy stream," *lǭd , with a meaning associated with flooding (c.f. Leeds ), or lǖch , meaning "bright, shining." A popular legend is that the name comes from King Lot , who is king of Lothian in the Arthurian legend . The usual Latin form of

280-758: 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 significant towns include Livingston , Linlithgow , Bathgate , Queensferry , Dalkeith , Bonnyrigg , Penicuik , Musselburgh , Prestonpans , Tranent , North Berwick , Dunbar , Whitburn and Haddington . Historically,

315-573: Is present-day Scotland and seems to have little to do with the Norse-controlled areas to the south. Roger of Wendover wrote that Edgar, King of the English granted Laudian to Kenneth II , King of Scots in 973 on condition that he come to court whenever the English king or his successors wore his crown. It is widely accepted by medieval historians that this marks the point at which Lothian became part of Scotland. Despite this transaction,

350-564: The Chronicle describes how the Scottish king, Malcolm Canmore , "went with his army out of Scotland into Lothian in England". In the post-Roman period, Lothian was dominated by British-speakers whose language is generally called Cumbric and was closely related to Welsh . In Welsh tradition Lothian is part of the "Old North" ( Hen Ogledd ). Reminders exist in British place-names like Tranent , Linlithgow and Penicuik . During

385-457: The Cornish name of St Michael's Mount 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 around Penzance still get occasional glimpses at extreme low water of

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420-572: The Kingdom of Northumbria . Important Anglo Saxon structural remains have been found in Aberlady along with various artefacts such as an early 9th century Anglo Saxon coin. Little is recorded of Lothian's history specifically at this time. After the Norse -speaking Viking Great Army conquered southern Northumbria (including areas that would later become Yorkshire), northern Northumbria – centred on

455-559: The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 , being replaced with regions and districts . Lothian Regional Council formally took over responsibility from the old county councils in May 1975. The Lothian region was split into four districts: East Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian , and West Lothian . Each district was broadly based on the areas of the pre-1975 counties and city, but with some notable alterations. The Lothian Regional Council

490-637: The 10th century. Subsequent Scottish history saw the region subdivided into three counties — Midlothian , East Lothian , and West Lothian —leading to the popular designation of " the Lothians ". The origin of the name is debated. It perhaps comes from the British *Lugudūniānā ( Lleuddiniawn in Modern Welsh spelling), meaning "country of the fort of Lugus ", the latter being a Celtic god of commerce. Alternatively, it may take its name from

525-656: The Anglo-Saxon period, the Northumbrian dialect of Old English came to be spoken in the region. Initially confined to Lothian and the Borders, the language would grow, change, and spread across the lowlands of Scotland, becoming the Scots language . The dialects of the modern Lothians are usually considered to be part of Central Scots . Place names in the Lothians of Anglian origin include Ingliston . Although one of

560-779: The Coastal and Marine Environment of the Isles of Scilly was commissioned by English Heritage and carried out by the Historic Environment Projects, Cornwall Council , 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 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

595-534: 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 . 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 Seven Stones Reef , on the reputed site of the lost land's capital and

630-751: The control of Lothian was not finally settled and the region was taken by the Scots at the Battle of Carham in 1018 and the River Tweed became the de facto Anglo-Scottish border. William the Conqueror invaded Lothian and crossed over the River Forth but was not able to conquer it. At this time Lothian appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as Loðen or Loþen . As late as 1091,

665-656: The date of its inundation is actually c. 2500 BC. International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 216586637 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 08:03:45 GMT Lothian Lothian ( / ˈ l oʊ ð i ə n / ; Scots : Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n ; Scottish Gaelic : Lodainn [ˈl̪ˠot̪aɲ] )

700-490: The few areas of mainland Scotland where the Gaelic language was never dominant, the presence of some Gaelic place-names, e.g. Dalry , Currie , Balerno and Cockenzie , has been attributed to the "temporary occupation...[and] the presence of a landowning Gaelic-speaking aristocracy and their followers for something like 150–200 years." By 1305, the area of Lothian had been divided into three shires (the area controlled by

735-403: 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. 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 ),

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770-471: The former Anglian kingdom of Bernicia – was cut off from the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. How much Norse influence spread north of the River Tees is uncertain. Bernicia continued as a distinct territory, sometimes described as having a king, at other times an ealdorman (earl). Bernicia became distinct from other English territories at this time due to its links with the other Christian kingdoms in what

805-526: The kingdom of Cantre'r Gwaelod in Cardigan Bay was drowned due to the drunkard negligence of its prince, Seithenyn , 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 near Penzance when the sea levels rose during the Bronze Age. For example,

840-412: The kingdom. 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

875-399: 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

910-456: The name is Laudonia . Lothian was settled by Angles at an early stage and formed part of the Kingdom of Bernicia , which extended south into present-day Northumberland and Durham. Many place names in the Lothians and Scottish Borders demonstrate that the English language became firmly established in the region from the sixth century onwards. In due course, Bernicia united with Deira to form

945-461: 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. The legend of

980-501: The site of the notorious wreck of the Torrey Canyon . The name means 'the milky ones', from the constant white water surrounding the reef. Alfred, Lord Tennyson 's Arthurian epic Idylls of the King describes Lyonesse as the site of the final battle between King Arthur and Mordred (King Arthur's nephew and illegitimate son). One passage in particular references legends of Lyonesse and its rise from (and subsequent return to)

1015-402: 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

1050-588: The term Lothian referred to a province encompassing most of what is now southeastern Scotland. In the 7th century it came under the control of the Anglian kingdom of Bernicia , the northern part of the later kingdom of Northumbria , but the Angles' grip on Lothian was quickly weakened following the Battle of Nechtansmere in which they were defeated by the Picts. Lothian was annexed to the Kingdom of Scotland around

1085-407: Was a castle-like cathedral that was presumably built on top of what is now the Seven Stones Reef between Land's End and the Isles of Scilly, some 18 miles (29 km) west of Land's End and 8 miles (13 km) north-east of the Isles of Scilly. It is sometimes spelled Lionesse . Lyonesse is mentioned in Arthurian legend , specifically in the tragic love-and-loss story of Tristan and Iseult . It

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1120-437: Was made a county of itself in 1482, making it administratively independent from the surrounding county of Edinburghshire. The three Lothian counties were all legally renamed during the twentieth century, with Haddingtonshire becoming East Lothian in 1921, Linlithgowshire becoming West Lothian in 1925, and Edinburghshire becoming Midlothian in 1947. In 1975 the old county councils and burgh corporations were abolished under

1155-638: Was responsible for education, social work, water, sewerage, and transport (including local buses within Edinburgh). The regional council was based at Lothian Chambers on King George IV Bridge in Edinburgh, which had been built in 1904 as the headquarters of the old Midlothian County Council. Lothian Regional Council was abolished in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 . The region's four districts took over all local government functions as unitary council areas . The first election to

1190-521: Was the home of the hero Tristan (one of the Knights of the Round Table ), whose father Meliodas 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

1225-529: 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. A 2009–13 joint study titled The Lyonesse Project: A Study of

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