Cockaigne or
Cockayne is a medieval mythical
land of plentyA mythological place is a place that a particular culture describes in their mythology and folklore as existent, that might have existed in earlier times but its actual location is now lost. Unlike fictional places, which are only used in fictional writings, mythological places are often...
, an imaginary place of extreme luxury and ease where physical comforts and pleasures are always immediately at hand and where the harshness of medieval
peasantA peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists by working a small plot of ground. The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district A peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists...
life does not exist. Specifically, in poems like
The Land of Cockaigne, Cockaigne is a land of contraries, where all the restrictions of society are defied (abbots beaten by their monks), sexual liberty is open (nuns flipped over to show their bottoms), and food is plentiful (skies that rain cheeses).
Cockaigne or
Cockayne is a medieval mythical
land of plentyA mythological place is a place that a particular culture describes in their mythology and folklore as existent, that might have existed in earlier times but its actual location is now lost. Unlike fictional places, which are only used in fictional writings, mythological places are often...
, an imaginary place of extreme luxury and ease where physical comforts and pleasures are always immediately at hand and where the harshness of medieval
peasantA peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists by working a small plot of ground. The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district A peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists...
life does not exist. Specifically, in poems like
The Land of Cockaigne, Cockaigne is a land of contraries, where all the restrictions of society are defied (abbots beaten by their monks), sexual liberty is open (nuns flipped over to show their bottoms), and food is plentiful (skies that rain cheeses). Writing about Cockaigne was a commonplace of
GoliardThe Goliards were a group of clergy who wrote bibulous, satirical Latin poetry in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. They were mainly clerical students at the universities of France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and England who protested the growing contradictions within the Church, such as the...
verse. It represented both wish fulfillment and resentment at the strictures of asceticism and dearth.
Etymology
The word
Cockaigne derives from
Middle EnglishMiddle English is the name given by historical linguists to the diverse forms of the English language in use between the late 11th century and about 1470, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the introduction of the printing...
cokaygne, traced to
Middle FrenchMiddle French is an historical division of the French language which covers the period from 1340 to 1611 . It is a period of transition during which:...
(pays de) cocaigne "(land of) plenty," ultimately adapted or derived from a word for a small sweet cake sold to children at a fair (
OED). The Dutch equivalent is
Luilekkerland ("lazy luscious land"), and the German equivalent is
Schlaraffenland (also known as "land of milk and honey"). In Spain an equivalent place is named
JaujaJauja is a town of 25,000 people in central Peru, capital of a province with a population of 105,000. It is situated in the fertile Mantaro Valley, 45 kilometers to the north of Huancayo , at an altitude of 3,400 m....
, after a rich mining region of the Andes, and
País de Cucaña ("fools' paradise") may also signify such a place. From Swedish dialect
lubber (fat lazy fellow) comes
Lubberland, popularized in the ballad
An Invitation to Lubberland"An Invitation to Lubberland" was a broadside ballad first printed in 1685. Many believe that it inspired the hobo ballad which formed the basis of the song Big Rock Candy Mountain recorded in 1928 by Harry McClintock.-Lyrics:...
.
In the 1820s, the name
Cockaigne came to be applied jocularly to
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, as the land of
CockneyThe term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
s, and thus "Cockaigne", though the two are not linguistically connected otherwise. The composer
Edward ElgarSir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, OM, GCVO was an English composer. Several of his first major orchestral works, including the Enigma Variations and the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, were greeted with acclaim. He also composed oratorios, chamber music, symphonies, instrumental concertos,...
used the title "Cockaigne" for his
concert overtureA symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in a single continuous section in which the content of a poem, a story or novel, a painting, a landscape or another source is illustrated or evoked. The term was first applied by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt to his 13 works in this vein...
and suite evoking the people of London,
Cockaigne (In London Town)Cockaigne , Op. 40, also known as Cockaigne Overture, is a concert overture for full orchestra composed by the British composer Edward Elgar in 1900-01.-History:...
(1901).
The Dutch villages of
KockengenKockengen is a village in the Dutch province of Utrecht . It is a part of the municipality of Breukelen, and lies about 9 km northeast of Woerden.In 2001, the village of Kockengen had 2296 inhabitants...
and Koekange were named after Cockaigne.
Descriptions
Like
AtlantisAtlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias.In Plato's account, Atlantis was a naval power lying "in front of the Pillars of Hercules" that conquered many parts of Western Europe and Africa 9,000 years before the time of Solon, or approximately 9600 BC...
and El Dorado, the land of Cockaigne was a fictional utopia, a place where, in a parody of paradise, idleness and gluttony were the principal occupations. In
Specimens of Early English Poets (1790), George Ellis printed a 13th century French poem called "The Land of Cockaigne" where
- the houses were made of barley sugar and cakes, the streets were paved with pastry, and the shops supplied goods for nothing.
According to Herman Pleij,
Dreaming of Cockaigne: Medieval Fantasies of the Perfect Life (2001):
roasted pigs wander about with knives in their backs to make carving easy, where grilled geese fly directly into one's mouth, where cooked fish jump out of the water and land at one's feet. The weather is always mild, the wine flows freely, sex is readily available, and all people enjoy eternal youth.
Cockaigne was a "medieval peasant’s dream, offering relief from backbreaking labor and the daily struggle for meager food."
The
Brothers GrimmThe Brothers Grimm , Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics who were best known for publishing collections of folk tales and fairy tales and for their work in linguistics, relating to how the sounds in words shift over time .They are among the best known story...
collected and retold the
fairy taleA fairy tale is a fictional story that may feature folkloric characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, gnomes, and talking animals, and usually enchantments, often involving a far-fetched sequence of events...
in
Das Märchen vom Schlaraffenland (
The Tale About the Land of Cockaigne).
Traditions
A
NeapolitanNaples in Italy, is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples. The city is known for its rich history, art, culture, architecture, music and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,800 years old...
tradition, extended to other Latin-culture countries, is the Cockaigne pole, a horizontal or vertical pole with a prize (like a ham) at one end. The pole is covered with grease or soap and planted during a festival. Then, daring people try to climb the slippery pole to get the prize. The crowd laughs at the often failed attempts to hold to the pole.
In the arts
- Ego sum abbas Cucaniensis (I am the Abbot of Cockaigne) is one of the drinking songs (Carmina potatoria) found in the 13th century manuscript of Songs from Benediktbeuern
Carmina Burana , Latin for "Songs from Beuern" , is the name given to a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces were written almost entirely in Medieval Latin; a few in Middle High German, and some with traces of...
, better known for its inclusion in Carl OrffCarl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his oratorio Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...
's secular cantata, Carmina BuranaCarmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff between 1935 and 1936. It is based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana...
.
- Cockaigne was depicted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in The Land of Cockaigne (1567, above).
- The poem, The Land of Cokaygne, http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/E300000-001/ appears in BL Harley MS 913, ff. 3r-63v (The Kildare Poems, #1); modern English translation http://www.soton.ac.uk/~wpwt/trans/cockaygn/coctrans.htm.
- The book, Dreaming of Cockaigne, by Herman Pleij (Columbia University Press, 2001) offers the most complete modern collection of information on the topic.
- The musical play, The Golden Dream, by Joe Syiek http://www.thegoldendream.com tells the story of oppressed peasants who yearn for, attain and ultimately lose their ideal of Cockaigne.
- The album Land of Cockayne
Land of Cockayne is the final album by the band Soft Machine, released in 1981. By this point, the band contained none of its original members. The title refers to the medieval land of plenty....
by Soft MachineSoft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the so-called "Canterbury scene," and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre....
, 1981.
- Cockaigne is the name of the kingdom which Princess Narda in the comic strip Mandrake the Magician
Mandrake the Magician is a syndicated newspaper comic strip, created by Lee Falk , which began June 11, 1934. Phil Davis soon took over as the strip's illustrator, while Falk continued to script. The strip was distributed by King Features Syndicate. Davis worked on the strip until his death in...
comes from.
- Cockaigne (In London Town)
Cockaigne , Op. 40, also known as Cockaigne Overture, is a concert overture for full orchestra composed by the British composer Edward Elgar in 1900-01.-History:...
is a concert overture composed by Edward ElgarSir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, OM, GCVO was an English composer. Several of his first major orchestral works, including the Enigma Variations and the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, were greeted with acclaim. He also composed oratorios, chamber music, symphonies, instrumental concertos,...
in 1901.
- "Bruegel in the Land of Cockaigne" is the heading of the second chapter of T. J. Clark
Timothy James Clark was born in 1943 in Bristol, England.He first acquired fame as a Marxist art historian. He holds the George C. and Helen N. Pardee Chair as Professor of Modern Art at the University of California, Berkeley...
's 2002 Tanner Lectures on Human ValuesThe Tanner Lectures on Human Values is a multi-university lecture series in the humanities, founded on July 1, 1978, at Clare Hall, Cambridge University, by the American scholar Obert Clark Tanner...
"Painting at Ground Level".http://www.tannerlectures.utah.edu/lectures/volume24/clark_2002.pdf
- In the popular cookbook The Joy of Cooking
The Joy of Cooking is one of the United States' most-published cookbooks, having been in print continuously since 1936 and with more than 18 million copies sold. It was privately published in 1931 by Irma S. Rombauer, a homemaker in St. Louis, Missouri, who was struggling emotionally and...
, the author's favorite recipes include "Cockaigne" in the name, (e.g., "Fruit Cake Cockaigne"), explained in the foreword to the 1975 edition as after the name of the Becker country home in Anderson Township, near Cincinnati, Ohio.
- Cockaigne is the name of a small Australian record label, run by musicians Dave Graney
Dave Graney is an Australian rock musician and singer/songwriter.Graney is generally accompanied by his wife and longstanding creative partner, drummer Clare Moore...
and Clare MooreClare Moore is an Australian musician, songwriter, arranger, producer and performer whose principal instrument is the drums. She has also performed as a keyboard player, singer and vibraphone player. She is married to Dave Graney.-History:...
.
- "Big Rock Candy Mountain
"Big Rock Candy Mountain" is a song about a hobo's idea of paradise - a modern version of the medieval concept of Cockaigne, and similar to the cavalryman's concept of Fiddler's Green....
" is a song about a hobo's idea of paradise - a modern version of the medieval concept of Cockaigne.
- British folk band Norcsalordie recorded a song about Cockaigne, "Goodbye Cockaigne" as the final track on their debut album "Post to Pillar".
- In Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose
The Name of the Rose, a novel by Umberto Eco, is a historical whodunnit — a murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327. It is an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
, Salvatore's escape from his parents home "assumed the aspect of the land of Cockaigne." Umberto Eco, "The Name of the Rose", Warner Books 1986, page 220
- In Umberto Eco's The Island of the Day Before
The Island of the Day Before is a 1994 novel by Umberto Eco.It is the story of a 17th century Italian nobleman who is the only survivor of a shipwreck during a fierce storm. He finds himself washed up on an abandoned ship in a harbour through which, he convinces himself, runs the International...
, Cockaigne is evoked in a passage describing an ice-tipped mountain. "...an exquisite eruption in a land of Cockaigne." Umberto Eco, "The Island of the Day Before", Penguin Books 1996, page 64
- In Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He received the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel for his novel All the King's Men and the Pulitzer Prize for...
's "World Enough and Time" - historical novelHistorical fiction is a genre in which the plot is set amidst historical events, or more generally, in which the author uses real events but adds a fictional character.-Overview:...
about the Beauchamp–Sharp Tragedy - Maria Jordan refers to her home state (VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The geography and climate of the state are shaped by the Blue...
) as the Land of Cockayne. Robert Penn Warren, "World Enough and Time, 1950, page 48
- The painting, Cockaigne, is a painting by Vincent Desiderio
Vincent Desiderio is an American realist painter. He is currently the senior critic at the New York Academy of Art. He lives in Sleepy Hollow, New York, and works in Ossining....
done in 2003
- In Raymond Roussel
Raymond Roussel was a French poet, novelist, playwright, musician, and chess enthusiast. Through his novels, poems, and plays he exerted a profound influence on certain groups within 20th century French literature, including the Surrealists, Oulipo, and the authors of the nouveau...
s Impressions of Africa, The sculptor Fuxier throws blue pastilles into a river to produce images for his audience. The last of the images took the appearance of one half of a clock-face, which Fuxier described as "The wind-clock in the land of Cockaigne." Raymond Roussel, "Impressions of Africa", Calderand Boyars Ltd 1966, page 698
- The Cockaigne ski resort
A ski area is a developed recreational facility, usually on a mountain or large hill, containing ski trails and vital supporting services. It is common for a ski area to have food, rental equipment, parking facilities and a ski lift system catering to the sports of skiing and snowboarding...
is located on the Chautauqua Ridge in the ski countrySki country is a term used to describe portions of the boundary between the Niagara Frontier and the Southern Tier of the western part of New York.-Weather:...
belt in Cherry CreekCherry Creek is a town in Chautauqua County, New York, United States. The population was 1,152 at the 2000 census. The name is derived from that of a small stream that flows through the town amid many cherry trees....
, New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.http://www.cockaigne.com/
See also
- Arcadia
Arcadia refers to a Utopian vision of pastoralism and harmony with nature. The term is derived from the Greek province of the same name which dates to antiquity; the province's mountainous topography and sparse population of pastoralists later caused the word Arcadia to develop into a poetic...
- Atlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias.In Plato's account, Atlantis was a naval power lying "in front of the Pillars of Hercules" that conquered many parts of Western Europe and Africa 9,000 years before the time of Solon, or approximately 9600 BC...
- Big Rock Candy Mountain
"Big Rock Candy Mountain" is a song about a hobo's idea of paradise - a modern version of the medieval concept of Cockaigne, and similar to the cavalryman's concept of Fiddler's Green....
- Fiddler's Green
Fiddler's Green is a legendary afterlife imagined by servicemen, where there is perpetual mirth, a fiddle that never stops playing, and dancers who never tire. Its origins are obscure, although some point to the Greek myth of the "Elysian Fields" as a potential inspiration.- Adoption among US...
- Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is a location described in the Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
- Golden age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend, but can also be found in other ancient cultures . It refers either to the earliest and best age in a sequence of ages, such as the Greek range of Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, or to a time in the beginnings of humanity that was...
- Oleanna
Oleanna is a Norwegian folk song which was translated into English and popularized in the United States by former Weavers member Pete Seeger.The song is a critique of Ole Bull's vision of a perfect society in America. Oleanna is actually the name of one of Ole Bull's communities in his colony New...
- Utopia
Utopia is a name for an ideal community or society, that is taken from Of the Best State of a Republic, and of the New Island Utopia, a book written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean, possessing a seemingly perfect socio-politico-legal system...
External links