The Flood of Lyonesse

In the waters off Cornwall, England, there are small islands called the Scilly Isles. According to legends, the remains of the ancient kingdom of Lyonesse lie beneath the Atlantic Ocean there. King Arthur knew this magical place, which was lost to a flood, and if you know how to look, you can still see the ruins of a great city there.

Lyonesse was a beautiful land of churches and magnificent cities. But everything was lost, as were all the inhabitants except one man and his horse, in a flood in November 1099. Today, the Cornish Trevelyan family, supposed descendants of that survivor, who escaped to the Scilly Isles, still displays a horse emerging from the waves on its coat-of-arms. The cities of Lyonesse were lost forever, and only its highest hills, the Scilly Isles, remain in view.

Some claim that Merlin's ghost flooded Lyonesse. Wounded by his enemy Mordred, King Arthur and his remaining knights fled to Lyonesse. As Arthur climbed to the tops of the hills, Merlin called up the flood, and Mordred's army was drowned. Arthur died on the Scilly Isles, and from this connection, some think Camelot might have been located there before the flood.

The truth about Lyonesse is that the fossils of a prehistoric forest can be seen at low tide. So, there used to be a forest where there now is ocean. Around the Scilly Isles, one sees ruins around the shores. Locals believed that objects on the beach were boundary markers placed by the inhabitants of Lyonesse before the flood. Although scientists say that they were fish traps, ruins on other islands suggest the water did rise.

Some rocks between the mainland and the Scilly Isles, known as the Seven Stones, are believed to mark the site of a great city. Sailors and fishermen from the surrounding area refer to the location as "The Town." Fishermen tell of catching in their nets refuse from Lyonesse, still floating around since the ancient flood. Landbound witnesses report hearing the mournful bells of the church towers of Lyonesse and seeing the spires of its churches rise above the waves when they look out toward the Scilly Isles.

Scientists do not accept the legend of the flood of Lyonesse, saying there has not been enough change in the water levels to account for such a flood, but there is still evidence of changes on the shores of the Scilly Isles. Scientific proof is not enough to change the minds of the Cornish locals. Faced with a story as enchanting and enduring as the tale of the sinking of Lyonesse beneath a flood, however, a scientist is no good. One needs a poet, and so, let's let Thomas Hardy have the last melodious word:

When I came back from Lyonnesse
With magic in my eyes,
All marked with mute surmise
My radiance rare and fathomless,
When I came back from Lyonnesse
With magic in my eyes!