Category: Other Page 146 of 182

The Kingdom of Opona is a mythical kingdom in Russian folklore, envisioned by Russian peasants as lying at the edge of the flat earth. Here, it was believed, the peasants lived happy lives undisturbed by the state or the gentry,[1] under a ‘White Tsar’ who ruled ‘truly and justly’.[2] It was also known under the names of the Golden Land, Land of Chud, and Belovodye.[2] […]

Groups of peasants were even known to have gone on expeditions in the far north of Russia to find the mythical utopia.[1] Dubbed ‘Wanderers’, they spent their lives trying to discover the hidden paradise, which it was said could be reached by those who searched ‘diligently enough’.[2]

Source: Kingdom of Opona – Wikipedia

In the Dove Book and other medieval Russian books, Buyan (Russian: Буя́н, sometimes transliterated as Bujan[1]) is described as a mysterious island in the ocean with the ability to appear and disappear using tides. Three brothers—Northern, Western, and Eastern Winds—live there, and also the Zoryas, solar goddesses who are servants or daughters of the solar god Dazhbog.[2]

It figures prominently in many famous myths; Koschei the Deathless keeps his soul or immortality hidden there, secreted inside a needle placed inside an egg in the mystical oak-tree; other legends call the island the source of all weather, created there and sent forth into the world by the god Perun.

Source: Buyan – Wikipedia

Carcosa is a fictional city in Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Inhabitant of Carcosa” (1886). The ancient and mysterious city is barely described and is viewed only in hindsight (after its destruction) by a character who once lived there. Its name may be derived from the medieval city of Carcassonne in southern France, whose Latin name was “Carcaso.”

American writer Robert W. Chambers borrowed the name “Carcosa” for his stories, inspiring generations of authors to similarly use Carcosa in their own works.

Source: Carcosa – Wikipedia

The Nameless City of the story’s title is an ancient ruin located somewhere in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula, and is older than any human civilization. In ancient times, the Nameless City was built and inhabited by an unnamed race of reptiles with a body shaped like a cross between a crocodile and a seal with a strange head common to neither, involving a protruding forehead, horns, lack of a nose, and an alligator-like jaw. These beings moved by crawling; thus, the architecture of the city has very low ceilings and some places are too low for a human being to stand upright. Their city was originally coastal, but, when the seas receded, it was left in the depths of a desert. This resulted in the decline and eventual ruin of the city.[…]

Another identified source is the 9th Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, whose description of “Irem, the City of Pillars” he copied into his commonplace book: “which yet, after the annihilation of its tenants, remains entire, so Arabs say, invisible to ordinary eyes, but occasionally, and at rare intervals, revealed to some heaven-favoured traveller.”[3]

Source: The Nameless City – Wikipedia

There are several explanations for the reference to “Iram – who had lofty pillars”. Some see this as a geographic location, either a city or an area, others as the name of a tribe. Those identifying it as a city have made various suggestions as to where or what city it was, ranging from Alexandria or Damascus to a city which actually moved or a city called Ubar.[4] As an area it has been identified with the biblical Aram, son of Shem and the biblical region known as Aram.[5] It has also been identified as a tribe, possibly the tribe of ʿĀd, with the pillars referring to tent pillars.[1]

Source: Iram of the Pillars – Wikipedia

To the surprise of the Mongols, the town had no fortifications whatsoever. Its citizens didn’t even intend to defend themselves and were engaged in fervent praying, asking God for their salvation. On seeing this, the Mongols rushed to the attack, but then stopped. Suddenly, they saw countless fountains of water bursting from under the ground all around them. The attackers fell back and watched the town submerge into the lake. The last thing they saw was a glaring dome of a cathedral with a cross on top of it. Soon only waves remained.

Source: Kitezh – Wikipedia

It is likely that until relatively recent times the islands were much larger and perhaps joined together into one island named Ennor. Rising sea levels flooded the central plain around 400–500 AD, forming the current 55 islands and islets, if an island is defined as “land surrounded by water at high tide and supporting land vegetation”.[6] The word Ennor is a contraction of the Old Cornish[7] En Noer (Moer, mutated to Noer), meaning ‘the land'[7] or the ‘great island’.[8] […]

The islands may correspond to the Cassiterides (‘Tin Isles’) believed by some to have been visited by the Phoenicians, and mentioned by the Greeks. However, the archipelago itself does not contain much tin.

Source: Isles of Scilly – Wikipedia

A lake-burst (Old Irish: tomaidm[1]) is a phenomenon referred to in Irish mythology, in which a previously non-existent lake comes into being, often when a grave is being dug. Part of the lake-burst stories may originate in sudden hydrographic changes around limestone-based inland plains or turloughs. […]

Medieval bards had a special genre of lake-burst poems called tomamond.

Source: Lake-burst – Wikipedia

Cantre’r Gwaelod, also known as Cantref Gwaelod or Cantref y Gwaelod (English: The Lowland Hundred), 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 Atlantis” and has featured in folklore, literature and song.

Source: Cantre’r Gwaelod – Wikipedia

Lyonesse is a country in Arthurian legend, particularly in the story of Tristan and Iseult. Said to border Cornwall, it is most notable as the home of the hero Tristan, whose father was king. In later traditions, Lyonesse is said to have sunk beneath the waves some time after the Tristan stories take place, making it similar to Ys and other lost lands in medieval Celtic tales, and perhaps connecting it with the Isles of Scilly (there is evidence that they were once a single larger island, with much of their land lost to rising sea levels and/or to forebulge sinking).

Source: Lyonesse – Wikipedia