Editing Cockaigne (section)

{{Short description|Mythical land of luxury}}
{{other uses|Cockayne (disambiguation)}}
[[File:Pieter Bruegel d. Ä. 037.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]]: ''[[The Land of Cockaigne (Bruegel)|Luilekkerland]]'' ("The Land of Cockaigne "), oil on panel (1567; [[Alte Pinakothek]], [[Munich]])]]
{{Utopia}}
'''Cockaigne''' or '''Cockayne''' ({{IPAc-en|k|ɒ|ˈ|k|eɪ|n}}) is a [[Mythical place|land of plenty]] in [[Middle Ages|medieval]] myth, an [[Imagination|imaginary]] place of luxury and ease, comfort and pleasure, opposite to the harshness of medieval [[peasant]] life.<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Cockaigne, Land of|volume=6|page=622}}</ref> In poems like [[Land of Cockayne (poem)|''The Land of Cockaigne'']], it is a land of contraries, where all the restrictions of society are defied (abbots beaten by their monks), sexual liberty is open (nuns showing their bottoms), and food is plentiful (skies that rain cheese). Cockaigne appeared frequently in [[Goliard]] verse. It represented both [[wish fulfillment]] and resentment at scarcity and [[Christian]] [[asceticism]].

Cockaigne was a "medieval peasant’s dream, offering relief from backbreaking labor and the daily struggle for meager food."<ref>{{cite web |title=New York Public Library: Utopia |url=http://utopia.nypl.org/I_sources_9b.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716201501/http://utopia.nypl.org/I_sources_9b.html |archive-date=2012-07-16 |access-date=2012-10-02 |publisher=Utopia.nypl.org}}</ref>