Logres (among various other forms and spellings) is King Arthur's realm in the Matter of Britain. The geographical area referred to by the name is south and eastern England. However, Arthurian writers such as Chrétien de Troyes and Wolfram von Eschenbach have differed in their interpretations of this.
Etymology
It derives from the medieval
Welsh language word
Lloegyr, a name of uncertain origin referring to South and Eastern
England (
Lloegr is modern Welsh for all of England).
Geographical area in various Arthurian works
In Arthurian contexts, "Logres" is often used to describe the
Celtic Britons territory roughly corresponding to the borders of England before the area was taken by the
Anglo-Saxons. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth's influential but largely fictional history
Historia Regum Britanniae, the realm was named after the legendary king
Locrinus, the oldest son of Brutus of Troy. In his
Historia, Geoffrey uses the word "Loegria" to describe a province containing most of England excluding
Cornwall and possibly
Northumberland, as in this example from section iv.20 (from the
Penguin Classics translation by
Lewis Thorpe):
It was described by Chrétien de Troyes as "The Land of " ( l'Ogres) in his poem Perceval, the Story of the Grail. In various French works, Logres appears as the name of the land or the capital city (otherwise Camelot), its inhabitants can be known as either Loegrwys or Lloegrwys. Translating and compiling such texts for his Le Morte d'Arthur, Thomas Malory conflated Logres with his contemporary Kingdom of England and usually used just "England" instead, except for the names of some of the Knights of the Round Table. In some medieval German works, Logres is the personal domain of Gawain, as established by Wolfram von Eschenbach.
Use in modern fiction
The name "Logres" is also used in several works of modern fantasy set in Britain; for example, C. S. Lewis's
That Hideous Strength,
Susan Cooper's
Over Sea, Under Stone, and Charles Williams'
Taliessin Through Logres.
See also
External links
-
Logres at Encyclopædia Arthuriana
