The name
"Kingdom of Saguenay" supposedly has its origin in an
AlgonquinThe Algonquins are aboriginal/First Nations inhabitants of North American who speak Algonquin. Culturally and linguistically, they are closely related to the Odawa and Ojibwe, with whom they form the larger Anicinàpe grouping...
legend, as recorded by the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
during French colonisation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. According to the Algonquin Indians, there was a kingdom to the north, of
blondBlond or fair-hair, is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some sort of yellowish color...
men rich with
goldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is...
and furs, in a place they called Saguenay.
Jacques CartierJacques Cartier was a French explorer who claimed what is now Canada for France. He was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "The Country of Canadas", after the Iroquois names for the two big settlements he saw...
first described finding the
Saguenay RiverThe Saguenay River is a major river of Quebec, Canada.It drains Lac Saint-Jean in the Laurentian Highlands, leaving at Alma and running east, and passes at the city of Saguenay. It drains into the Saint Lawrence River at Tadoussac.The river has a very high flow rate and is bordered by steep cliffs...
on his second voyage in 1536; he had with him Chief
DonnaconaChief Donnacona was the chief of Stadacona, a St. Lawrence Iroquoian village located at the present site of Quebec City, Canada. In 1534 when French explorer Jacques Cartier first arrived at Gaspé Bay , he seized two natives, Dom Agaya and Taignoagny, and took them to France...
's sons who told him it was the way to the Kingdom of Saguenay.
The name
"Kingdom of Saguenay" supposedly has its origin in an
AlgonquinThe Algonquins are aboriginal/First Nations inhabitants of North American who speak Algonquin. Culturally and linguistically, they are closely related to the Odawa and Ojibwe, with whom they form the larger Anicinàpe grouping...
legend, as recorded by the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
during French colonisation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. According to the Algonquin Indians, there was a kingdom to the north, of
blondBlond or fair-hair, is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some sort of yellowish color...
men rich with
goldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is...
and furs, in a place they called Saguenay.
Jacques CartierJacques Cartier was a French explorer who claimed what is now Canada for France. He was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "The Country of Canadas", after the Iroquois names for the two big settlements he saw...
first described finding the
Saguenay RiverThe Saguenay River is a major river of Quebec, Canada.It drains Lac Saint-Jean in the Laurentian Highlands, leaving at Alma and running east, and passes at the city of Saguenay. It drains into the Saint Lawrence River at Tadoussac.The river has a very high flow rate and is bordered by steep cliffs...
on his second voyage in 1536; he had with him Chief
DonnaconaChief Donnacona was the chief of Stadacona, a St. Lawrence Iroquoian village located at the present site of Quebec City, Canada. In 1534 when French explorer Jacques Cartier first arrived at Gaspé Bay , he seized two natives, Dom Agaya and Taignoagny, and took them to France...
's sons who told him it was the way to the Kingdom of Saguenay. While imprisoned in France in the 1530s, Donnacona himself also told stories about it, claiming it had great mines of
silverSilver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
and gold. French explorers in
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
looked for this kingdom in vain. Today, it is typically understood to be entirely mythical, a European misunderstanding(or made up), or an Algonquin attempt to trick or confuse the French. However, some people have speculated it was an ancient,
pre-ColumbianThe Pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic to European colonization during the...
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an settlement to which the Algonquin
oral traditionOral tradition, oral culture and oral lore are messages or testimony transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...
referred, such as the
NorseNorsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who speak one of the North Germanic languages as their native language. The meaning of Norseman was "people from the North"...
settlement at
L'Anse aux MeadowsL'Anse aux Meadows is an archaeological site on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Discovered in 1960, it is the only known site of a Norse village in North America outside of Greenland...
.
The name Saguenay survived in many modern placenames. The modern-day Saguenay region, including the city of
SaguenaySaguenay is a city in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada, on the Saguenay River, about north of Quebec City....
(Chicoutimi-Jonquière), is on both shores of the
Saguenay RiverThe Saguenay River is a major river of Quebec, Canada.It drains Lac Saint-Jean in the Laurentian Highlands, leaving at Alma and running east, and passes at the city of Saguenay. It drains into the Saint Lawrence River at Tadoussac.The river has a very high flow rate and is bordered by steep cliffs...
in
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. As the name of the river, the Kingdom has also become the namesake of
Saguenay HeraldSaguenay Herald of Arms is the title of one of the officers of arms at the Canadian Heraldic Authority in Ottawa. Like the other heralds at the Authority, the name is derived from the Canadian river of the same name. Saguenay Herald of Arms is the Assistant Registrar of the Canadian Heraldic...
at the
Canadian Heraldic AuthorityThe Canadian Heraldic Authority is part of the Canadian honours system under the Queen of Canada, whose authority is exercised by the Governor General. The Authority is responsible for the creation and granting of new coats of arms , flags and badges for Canadian citizens, permanent residents and...
. It is part of the
Saguenay-Lac-Saint-JeanSaguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean is a region in Quebec, Canada. It contains the Saguenay Fjord, the estuary of the Saguenay River, stretching through much of the region...
administrative region. Today, the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region is sometimes referred to metaphorically as the Kingdom of the Saguenay (
Royaume du Saguenay), for example in tourist marketing.
Unrelated to the legend, a
micronationMicronations — sometimes also referred to as model countries and new country projects — are entities that resemble independent nations or states but which are unrecognized by world governments or major international organisations. These nations often exist only on paper, on the...
al project in the Saguenay region,
Le Royaume de L'Anse-Saint-JeanL'Anse-Saint-Jean is a small town, population 1269 , in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada.L'Anse-Saint-Jean was founded in 1838 by the Société des Vingt-et-un, a group of lumber prospectors and investors from Charlevoix which was responsible for opening up the Saguenay region to...
(
q.v.), achieved a certain amount of prominence in 1997.
The name
Saguenay is not related to
SaginawSaginaw Bay is a bay within Lake Huron located on the eastern side of the U.S. state of Michigan. It forms the space between Michigan's Thumb region and the rest of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Saginaw Bay is in area.-Saginaw Bay watershed:...
, the name of a
riverThe Saginaw River is a 22-mile-long river in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is formed by the confluence of the Tittabawassee and Shiawassee rivers southeast of Saginaw. It flows northward into the Saginaw Bay of Lake Huron just northeast of Bay City.The river is an important shipping route for...
,
baySaginaw Bay is a bay within Lake Huron located on the eastern side of the U.S. state of Michigan. It forms the space between Michigan's Thumb region and the rest of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Saginaw Bay is in area.-Saginaw Bay watershed:...
and
citySaginaw is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. Once two independent cities, the consolidated City of Saginaw was once a thriving lumber town and manufacturing center. Saginaw and Saginaw County lie in the Flint/Tri-Cities region of Michigan...
in Michigan that is of Ojibway origin.