In the southwest part of England, especially in Devon and Cornwall – and the offshore islands of Scilly – stories about a submerged land named Lyonesse have been current for a long long time. Some people regard Lyonesse as having been a land adjoining Cornwall; others view Lyonesse as having been the Scilly Isles. I favour the latter for reasons explained below but first have a look at the illustration below, which shows the evolution of Lyonesse traditions and their divergence. The “Lyonesse off Cornwall” view was championed by John Carew in his AD 1602 Survey of Cornwall. The “Lyonesse as Scilly” view was championed by William Camden in his AD 1586 Britannia. Since that time, the former seems to have become dominant.
The work of John Carew appears to have been strongly influenced by Thomas Malory’s (AD 1485) Morte d’Arthur which in turn drew heavily on both Arthurian history and the contemporary development of popular medieval (knightly) romances. Malory had two principal sources – historical chronicles and the generally more fanciful romances that typically described feuding nobles, especially their memorable battles and love affairs. While these sources were probably largely manuscripts, these represented a transitional stage between oral stories and published ones; most such manuscripts would have been the first time that long-standing oral stories were written down and their rendition would have been influenced by both their chroniclers and their intended audience.
One of these medieval romances – that of Tristram and Yseult – together with Morte d’Arthur helped establish the romantic tradition of Lyonesse which formed the basis for Alfred Tennyson’s (1869) poem The Passing of Arthur, the last in his Idylls of the King cycle, the popularity of which cemented perhaps more than anything else the story of Lyonesse in post-Victorian tradition. In this poem, ‘sunset bound’ Lyonesse is
“A land of old upheaven from the abyss
By fire, to sink into the abyss again;
Where fragments of forgotten peoples dwelt”
Of western Cornwall, Carew wrote
“The encroaching sea hath ravined from it, the whole country of Lionesse [Lyonesse], together with divers other parcels of no little circuit; and that such a Lionesse there was, these proofs are yet remaining. The space between the Land’s End and the Isles of Scilly, being about thirty miles, to this day retaineth that name, in Cornish Lethowsow, and carrieth an equal depth of forty or sixty fathoms, (a thing not usual in the sea’s proper dominion) save that about the midway, there lieth a rock [today named Wolf Rock – see Figure 1] which at low water discovereth its head. They term it the Gulf, suiting thereby the other name of Scilla. Fishermen also, casting their hooks thereabouts, have drawn up pieces of doors and windows.”
The contrary view of Camden was largely driven by his conviction that the Greeks and Romans had discovered the Scilly Isles, naming them the Cassiterides (Tin Islands), a belief that also motivated his disciple, William Borlase. Influenced by Strabo’s comment that the Cassiterides numbered ten islands (far fewer than in the modern Scilly Isles, implying submergence) and his own observations of the effects of sea-level rise on the Scilly Isles, Borlase concluded that much of southwest England had been submerged recently as a result of two distinct processes. Of the Scillies, where he found evidence for an ancient culture he presumed to predate settlement by ancestors of the present occupants, he wrote in 1765 that
“Two causes of the extinction of the old Inhabitants, their habitations, and works of Peace, War, and Religion, occur to me; the gradual advances of the Sea, and a sudden Submersion of the Land”
Borlase travelled to the Scillies to make his own observations, concluding in his 1756 report that the islands of
“Trescaw, St Martin’s, Brehar, Samson, and the Rocks and Islets adjoining made formerly but one Island, nay, to these, I believe, I may safely add the Eastern Islands and St Mary’s too, there being great Flats reaching from St Martin’s almost to both, all uncovered at Low-water, and having but four feet water in the deepest part”.
See the following map.
Given that the Scilly Isles have been occupied for seven thousand years or more, the idea that their submergence (and splitting into islands) gave rise to the Lyonesse stories seems completely plausible. While Lyonesse stories could have commenced with the break-up of the single island as early as 7500 years ago, the most rapid changes in land-sea configuration occurred after the rate of sea-level rise accelerated – in the period 5000-4000 years ago. Within this period, during the 70-year lifespan of an average individual, there would have been “a decrease of more than 700,000 m2 in land area and an increase of over 350,000 m2 in intertidal area”. The observations of such changes could have created all the foundational elements of the Lyonesse stories.
Stories passed on for 5-6 millennia in other pre-literate societies provide numerous compelling parallels involving sea-level rise, volcanism and meteorite impacts. The subsequent embellishment of Lyonesse stories, the attempts to transfer them to mainland Cornwall, and their linking to more recent catastrophic (flood) events are all the kinds of things that have happened with similar ancient stories in other contexts.
This research was summarised in a recent article and discussed in a recent book – and is being pursued in collaboration with Rita Compatangelo-Soussignan, an eminent Professor of Medieval History.
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