lake and sea montage

Piccadilly Line

Overview

Lakes and seas in literature and legend

'I think it will cast a lot of light on the medieval stories if we see where lakes and seas feature in older traditions first,' said Miranda.

'Sounds good to me,' replied Quintin. 'Where shall we start first? I propose we start with Homer. The Odyssey. The whole of the first half of the story is about a sea voyage.'

'And how does the voyage end?'

'With Odysseus travelling back home to his island of Ithica.'

'And how does he travel?'

'In a boat that sails more swiftly than any bird can fly, and all the while he is lying asleep so soundly that it looks as though he is dead.'

'And when he arrives?'

'He pretends to be somebody else.'

'Well, there you are,' said Miranda. 'And when heroes in Irish mythological stories are taken into the Otherworld, it often involves crossing the sea. Like when Oisín is taken to the Land of Youth by a daughter of the god Manannan and sees a lady with an apple riding across the waves. Or when Bran is urged to sail to an Isle of Women by a goddess carrying a bough of apple blossom. Or when Diarmuid travels across the sea to an island with a pool and is dragged through its depths to emerge into the Otherworld.'

'The sea that Odysseus sails around is very like an Otherworld, with giants on every island and goddesses who turn men into animals,' said Quintin.

'But we can go further back in time even than this,' said Miranda. 'There are intaglio rings dating to the Minoan period – around 1600 BC – that show a boat with a shrine at the front and no obvious way of propelling it, as though it was a fictional vessel.'

'Rather like the ship with no crew in a Breton lai called Guigemar,' said Quintin. 'There was nothing on board that boat except for a bed for a wounded man to lie on, and a candelabra of lighted candles at the bow.'

'Sounds very funerial'

'Well, I agree.'

'And the Otherworld is a land of the dead?'

'Very often.'

'So given all this,' said Miranda, 'what are we to make of the tale of Emaré, a fourteenth century Middle English Breton lai. The maiden and emperor's daughter Emaré is sentenced to death by burning. But at the very last minute she is put into a boat instead, without sail or oar, with no food and with no water, and set adrift. She washes up many days later on a far distant shore and, like Odysseus, immediately pretends to be somebody else.'

'Wearing a dress that makes her look as though she is a creature of the Otherworld,' said Quintin. 'It says that explicitly.'

Take a quick tour

The Piccadilly Line passes through a succession of places in time and location where lakes and seas are to be found in literature, legend or mythology. Click or tap on the circles and tunnel markers to dive deeper into the discoveries that Quintin and Miranda have made. Alternatively, click or tap on the large blue button for a quick journey through the summaries. Click or tap on any summary to dive deeper.

Lakes and seas

Click and move to the next item

Ancient Greek Mythology

Homer: The Odyssey

8th century BC, Ancient Greek.

Odysseus travels by ship to the land of the dead, where he meets with the ghosts of the men he fought alongside at Troy.

Ancient Greek Mythology

Homer: The Odyssey

8th century BC, Ancient Greek.

The magic ship ploughs through the waves, propelled by the Phaeacian oarsmen with the speed of a swallow flying through the air.

Irish Mythology

The Voyage of Maeldun

12th century, Old Irish, Lebor na hUidre (Book of the Dun Cow). Royal Irish Academy, Dublin.

It was as though they were sailing through air. Beneath the boat they could see another land.

Irish Mythology

Tales of Fionn mac Cumhaill: Diarmuid and Manannan

pre-12th century–present. Old Irish | Modern Irish, folklore.

Diarmuid tries to stop him with a rugby tackle and is dragged down through its depths. At the bottom of the pool he finds himself in another land.

Medieval Arthurian Legend

The Old French pre-Vulgate Lancelot: the Lady of the Lake

13th century, Old French.

A damsel plunges into a lake and disappears beneath its surface with the baby Lancelot. The child grows up in a house beneath the lake. But there is no water above it.

Medieval Romance

The Romance of Sir Bevis of Hampton

12th century Anglo-Norman Boeuve de Haumton | 14th century, Middle English: National Library of Scotland, Cambridge, Manchester, Naples.

Bevis sails across the sea as a small boy and lands in the Middle East where he begins a new life.

Medieval English Poetry

Geoffrey Chaucer: Canterbury Tale of the Man of Law

14th century, Middle English. Numerous printed copies.

Constance drifted throughout the Aegean Sea and on through the Straits of Gibraltar, waiting for death to claim her; for she harboured no hope of surviving to see her small boat cast onto a shore

Medieval Romance

Sir Eglamour of Artois

14th century, Middle English: 15th and 16th century manuscripts at Cambridge University Library, Lincoln Cathedral Library, British Library, Bodleian Library.

The lady sighed and climbed into the boat. Soon it was adrift upon the sea; the wind increased and carried her to a small island; it was no more than a rock.

Medieval Romance

The story of William and the Werewolf

12th century, Old French, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal Paris. Fourteenth century Middle English translation, King's College Library, Cambridge.

The wolf makes for the coast; the child's cries are heard – the wolf stays ahead of its pursuers, comes to the water, leaps into it and makes for the other side.

Old French Tales from Brittany

Marie de France: The Story of Guigemar

12th century, Old French: British Library, Bibliothèque Nationale Paris.

In the boat was a large bed, and at its prow were two candelabra filled with lighted candles.

Medieval Arthurian Legend

The Isle of Avalon

13th century, Old French La Morte le Roi Artu | 15th century, late Medieval English Le Morte d'Arthur

Girflet gallops back to the shore, but the boat carrying the wounded King Arthur is already a good distance out into the water when he arrives.

Old French Tales from Brittany

Marie de France: The Story of Lanval

12th century, Old French: British Library, Bibliothèque Nationale Paris.

He journeyed with her to Avalon, the Bretons say, to a very pretty isle. And he was never seen again.

Middle English Breton lais

The Tale of Emaré

14th century, Middle English: British Library.

Sir Cadore trotted his horse across the sand to the boat and saw a lady inside. They asked her her name, and she changed it and said that her name was Egaré.

Medieval Romance

Octavian

13th century, Old French | 14th century Middle English versions at Cambridge University Library, Lincoln Cathedral Library, British Library

The griffin snatched up the lioness and carried her across the sea to an isle. The child slept in the lioness’s mouth and knew nothing of the journey. The lioness suckled the infant.

Medieval Romance

The Romance of Sir Bevis of Hampton

12th century Anglo-Norman Boeuve de Haumton | 14th century Middle English: National Library of Scotland, Cambridge, Manchester, Naples.

Once in the water, Bevis and Tranchevise made good progress over the sea. In the space of a day and a night, the horse carried Bevis across.

Irish Mythology

Manannan and Ciabhan

pre-12th century–present. Old Irish | Modern Irish, folklore.

After leaving the 'Beach of the Burial Mound', Ciabhan is taken across the waves by the god Manannan to the shore of a Land of Promise, called the Land of Youth.

Irish Mythology

The Voyage of Bran

pre-12th century–present. Old Irish | Modern Irish, folklore.

It is a branch from an apple tree on a distant isle, an ancient tree that grows in a land without pain, without illness.

Irish Mythology

Tuatha de Danaan: The Land of Youth

pre-12th century–present. Old Irish | Modern Irish, folklore.

The horse began to gallop across the waves until Oisin did not know for sure whether it was the sea or the land they were riding over.

Scandinavian Mythology

The Poetic Edda

13th century, Old Norse, Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, Reykjavik.

The Midgard Serpent was a huge snake that encircled the Earth, biting its own tail beneath an ocean that separated the world of men from the land of the giants.

Irish Mythology

The Tuatha de Danaan: The Children of Lir

pre-12th century–present. Old Irish | Modern Irish, folklore.

The four children of Lir, now swans, agree to meet at Seal Island when the sea grows calm again.

Medieval Romance

Sir Amadace

14th century, Middle English: Princeton University Libraries, National Library of Scotland.

Sir Amadace agrees to a strange bargain with a ghost, and soon finds himself on a beach dressing himself in the clothes he has recovered from a shipwreck that has washed ashore.

Medieval Romance

The Romance of Sir Guy of Warwick

13th century, Anglo-Norman French, British Museum, Corpus Cristi College Cambridge: 14th and 15th century Middle English translations, National Library of Scotland, Bodleian Library Oxford, Cambridge University Library.

Guy woke up at last, raised his head and saw the stars shining above him. There was no land to be seen but only a broad expanse of water.

Medieval Arthurian Legend

Sir Thomas Malory: Le Morte d'Arthur

15th century, late-Medieval English.

And when she was dead, her body was laid on a bed and carried in a boat down the River Thames to Westminster, as she had asked.

Bronze Age Mediterranean: Minoan Culture

Boat of the dead

Gold ring: Late Minoan I, Mochlos, Crete. c. 1500 BC.

The little boat on this gold and bronze funerary ring appears to have neither sail nor oar to propel it.

Bronze Age Mediterranean: Minoan Culture

The Ring of Minos

Gold funerary ring: Late Minoan I, Knossos, Crete. c. 1500 BC.

A small boat carrying a shrine or something in the bow. A sort of circularity, from the boat, to the reaching up, to the lowering down, and back to the boat.

Medieval Arthurian Legend

Gottfried von Strassburg and Thomas of Britain: Tristan, Tristran, Tristrem

12th century, Anglo-Norman French, Thomas of Britain | 13th century, Middle High German, Gottfried von Strassburg | 14th century Middle English, anonymous.

Tristrem asked the king for a ship. 'Uncle,' he said, 'I'm dying. I'm no longer for this world. Take me to a ship.'

Medieval Arthurian Legend

The Turke and Sir Gawain

Early-sixteenth century, late-Medieval English. Percy Folio, British Library.

A journey into an Otherworld takes Sir Gawain across water in a boat to a land of giants – a land where everybody appears larger than you are, as though you are a small child again.

Scottish Folk Beliefs

Faerie Cattle: a Water-Bull

Recorded folk-belief. Skye, Inner Hebrides, Scotland.

A water-bull was seen emerging from the sea at night.

Scottish Folk Beliefs

Kelpies: a Water-Horse

Recorded folk-belief, Skye, Inner Hebrides, Scotland.

The water-horse plunged into the depths of a large splash pool and disappeared from sight. However, this horse may still be seen galloping across the sands where the stream meets the loch, on a summer evening.

Scottish Folk Beliefs

The Isle of Skye: Macleod's Maidens

Isle of Skye, Inner Hebrides, Scotland.

Mythical significance may have worked with a creative imagination to see in three Scottish sea stacks the three Norns of Scandinavian myth.

Celtic Christianity

The Legend of Saint Brendan

14th century, Middle English: British Library, London; Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

The island was brighter than the sun. All on board were joyful. This land was full of trees and plants, growing everywhere, and precious stones also, shining brightly.

Celtic Christianity

The Legend of Saint Brendan

The Voyage of Saint Brendan: 14th century, Middle English, British Museum, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

The ship comes eventually into a mist and sails on until the air clears and they find themselves on the shores of Paradise.

Pagan Burials and Transport

Anglo-Saxon England: Sutton Hoo

Early 7th century, East Anglia, England.

Inside the mound was found the remains of a ship, thirty metres long and with a central chamber filled with a sumptuous collection of Anglo-Saxon grave goods.

Elizabethan English Poetry

Edmund Spenser: The Idle Lake

16th century, Elizabethan English. The Faerie Qveene, numerous printed copies.

Ahead is a deadly whirlpool and a rock, which to avoid one is to be destroyed by the other. There are sirens calling. A lone female on an enchanted island.

Elizabethan English Poetry

Edmund Spenser: The Faerie Qveene

16th century, Elizabethan English. Numerous printed copies.

The boat obeyed her thoughts and slid more swiftly through the water than a swallow through the air.