Editing Cockaigne

{{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>

==Etymology==
While the first recorded uses of the word are the Latin ''Cucaniensis'' and the Middle English ''Cokaygne'', one line of reasoning has the name tracing to [[Middle French]] ''(pays de) cocaigne'' "(land of) plenty",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lautrec.fr/tourisme/pastel.php?menu=3 |title=Le Pastel et le Pays de Cocagne |publisher=Lautrec.fr |access-date=2012-10-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080505134056/http://www.lautrec.fr/tourisme/pastel.php?menu=3 |archive-date=2008-05-05 }}</ref> ultimately from a word for a small sweet cake sold to children at a fair. In [[Ireland]], it was mentioned in the ''[[Kildare Poems]]'', composed c. 1350. In [[Italian language|Italian]], the same place is called ''Paese della Cuccagna''; the Dutch equivalent is ''Luilekkerland'' ("lazy, delicious land"), translated from the [[Middle Dutch]] word ''Cockaengen'', and the German equivalent is ''Schlaraffenland''. In Spanish, an equivalent place is named ''[[Jauja]]'', 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'',<ref>[https://archive.today/20120630212437/http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd/archives.html Today's wwftd is...], at ''Worthless words for the day'', by Michael A. Fischer.</ref> popularized in the ballad ''[[An Invitation to Lubberland]]''.

In the 1820s, the name ''Cockaigne'' came to be applied jocularly to [[London]]<ref>''OED'' notes a first usage in 1824.</ref> as the land of [[Cockney]]s ("Cockney" from a "cock's egg", an implausible creature; see also [[basilisk]]), though the two are not linguistically connected otherwise. The composer [[Edward Elgar]] used the word "Cockaigne" for his [[symphonic poem|concert overture]] and suite evoking the people of London, ''[[Cockaigne (In London Town)]]'', Op. 40 (1901).

The Dutch villages of [[Kockengen]] and [[Koekange]] may be named after Cockaigne, though this has been disputed.<ref>Moerman, H. J., Nederlandse plaatsnamen: een overzicht (1956), Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 129</ref> The surname Cockayne also derives from the mythical land, and was originally a nickname for an idle dreamer.<ref name=Oxon>{{cite book|author1=Hanks, Patrick|author2=Hodges, Flavia|author3=Mills, A. D.|author4=Room, Adrian|title=The Oxford Names Companion|date=2002|location=Oxford|publisher=the University Press|isbn=978-0198605614}}</ref><ref name="auto">''The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland'', ed. by Patrick Hanks, Richard Coates, and Peter McClure, 4 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), I, p. 534 [s.v. ''Cockayne'']; {{ISBN|978-0-19-967776-4}}.</ref>

The name of the drug [[cocaine]] is unrelated: it was named in 1860 by [[Albert Niemann (chemist)|Albert Niemann]] from the plant [[coca]] ([[Quechua languages|Quechua]] ''kúka'') and the suffix ''[[wikt:-ine|-ine]]'' used to form chemical terms.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G9E7gfJq0KkC&dq=cocaine+coca++ine+niemann&pg=PA10|title=Karch's Pathology of Drug Abuse|first1=Steven B. Karch|last1=MD|first2=Olaf|last2=Drummer|date=December 15, 2008|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=9780849378812 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

==Descriptions==
[[Image:Schlaraffenland - no-nb krt 00932.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''Accurata Utopiae Tabula'', an "accurate map of [[Utopia]]", [[Johann Baptist Homann]]'s map of Schlaraffenland published by [[Matthäus Seutter]], Augsburg 1730]]

Like [[Atlantis]] and [[El Dorado (myth)|El Dorado]], the land of Cockaigne was a [[utopia]]. It was a fictional place where, in a parody of paradise, idleness and gluttony were the principal occupations. In ''Specimens of Early English Poets'' (1790), [[George Ellis (poet)|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".<ref>{{Cite book | publisher = Wordsworth Editions | isbn = 9781840223101 | last = Brewer | first = Ebenezer Cobham | title = The Wordsworth Dictionary of Phrase and Fable | date = 2001-05-01 | page = 265 }}</ref>

According to [[Herman Pleij]], ''Dreaming of Cockaigne: Medieval Fantasies of the Perfect Life'' (2003):

{{blockquote|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.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-11702-9/dreaming-of-cockaigne |title=Dreaming of Cockaigne |publisher=Cup.columbia.edu |date= July 2003|access-date=2012-10-02|isbn=9780231529211 }}</ref>}}

==Traditions==

A [[Naples|Neapolitan]] and [[Southern Italy|Southern Italian]] tradition, extended to [[Italian diaspora|Southern Italian diaspora]] communities and other [[Romance-speaking Europe|Latin culture]] countries, is the [[Greasy pole|Cockaigne pole]] (Italian: cuccagna; Spanish: cucaña), 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 on to the pole.

== Legacy ==
=== Place-names ===
[[File:La cucaña.jpg|thumb|[[Francisco Goya]]: ''[[La cucaña]]'' ("The Greasy Pole", {{Circa|1786}})]]

* The Dutch village of [[Kockengen]] in the province of [[Utrecht (province)|Utrecht]] is likely to have been named after Cockaigne by the local clergy, who established farms and peat-cutting settlements in the area.<ref>Herman Pleij, {{cite book|url=https://cup.columbia.edu/book/dreaming-of-cockaigne/9780231117029 |title=''Dreaming of Cockaigne: Medieval Fantasies of the Perfect Life'' |publisher=Columbia University Press |date=July 2003 |pages=398–400|isbn=9780231529211 }}</ref>
* The Canadian town of [[Cocagne]], New Brunswick, at the mouth of the Cocagne river, was named after Cockaigne.
* The English village of [[Cockayne Hatley]] in [[Bedfordshire]] was named after the Cokayne family, who took possession of the land in 1417.<ref name="auto"/>

=== Literature ===
* "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 [[Carmina Burana|''Songs from Benediktbeuern'']], better known for its inclusion in [[Carl Orff]]'s secular cantata, ''[[Carmina Burana (Orff)|Carmina Burana]]'' (1935-36).
* "L'invitation au voyage", a prose-poem by the French poet [[Charles Baudelaire]], found in his collection [[Paris Spleen|''Paris'' ''Spleen'']] (1869), makes reference to the "land of Cocaigne", there envisioned as a country in keeping with Baudelaire's poetic ideals, such as silence, decorum, indolence, and artifice. He describes it as "the East of the West, the China of Europe", as he describes it as being located to the North and as being possessed of qualities thought of as being essentially "Oriental" by the Europeans of the time.
* The [[Land of Toys]] (or Pleasure Island) from ''[[The Adventures of Pinocchio]]'' (1883) is said to be located in Cockaigne.
* [[James Branch Cabell]] in his ''[[Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice]]'' (1919), has the land of Cocaigne between the lands of sunrise and morning. ch XXIV. "Thus Jurgen abode for a little over two months in Cocaigne, and complied with the customs of that country. Nothing altered in Cocaigne: but in the world wherein Jurgen was reared, he knew, it would by this time be September, with the leaves flaring gloriously, and the birds flocking southward, and the hearts of Jurgen's fellows turning to not unpleasant regrets. But in Cocaigne there was no regret and no variability, but only an interminable flow of curious pleasures, illumined by the wandering star of Venus Mechanitis."<ref>https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8771 ''Jurgen: a Comedy of Justice''</ref>
* [[Clark Ashton Smith]] wrote a romantic prose poem titled [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ebony_and_Crystal/In_Cocaigne "In Cocaigne"] (1922).
* “The Land of Cockaigne” is the first poem in the 2015 book ''The Emperor of Water Clocks'' by [[Yusef Komunyakaa]], an American poet who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1994.

=== Painting ===
*  "The Land of Cockaigne" was depicted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in his painting ''[[The Land of Cockaigne (Bruegel)|Luilekkerland]]'' (1567).
* ''Cockaigne'', a 2003 painting by [[Vincent Desiderio]].

=== Music ===
* ''[[Cockaigne (In London Town)]]'' is a concert overture composed by [[Edward Elgar]] in 1901.
* The folk song "[[The Big Rock Candy Mountains]]", first recorded by [[Harry McClintock]] in 1928, depicts a [[hobo]]'s idea of paradise along the lines of Cockaigne, with "cigarette trees" and hens that lay soft-boiled eggs.
* The album ''[[Land of Cockayne (album)|Land of Cockayne]]'' (1981) by [[Soft Machine]].
* [[Edenbridge (band)|Edenbridge]]'s song ''The Most Beautiful Place'' mentions "You are what I call Cockaign".
* [[Jacques Brel]]'s song [[Le Plat Pays]] mentions "Et de noirs clochers comme mâts de cocagne" (and black steeples like cockaigne poles)
* [[Carl Orff]]’s choral work ''[[Carmina Burana]]'', a musical setting of anonymous mediæval ribald verse in [[Latin]] and [[Middle Low German]], includes the song ''Ego sum abbas Cucaniensis'' or "I am the abbot of Cockaigne".
* A song "The Land of Cockaigne" can be found on the 2017 album ''A Coat Worth Wearing'' by the Scots-born Sheffield-based musician [[Neil McSweeney]].

===  Comics ===
* Cockaigne is the home of Narda, the wife of [[Mandrake the Magician]] (created by [[Lee Falk]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.seattlepi.com/comics-and-games/fun/Phantom/2013-05-19/|title=The Phantom|work=seattlepi.com|access-date=16 September 2014|date=2013-05-19}}</ref>
*Cockaigne is mentioned in [[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]] by [[Alan Moore]], mainly in the form of written accounts given by [[Mina Harker]] and [[Fanny Hill]]

===Film===
* ''[[Hans Trutz in the Land of Plenty]]'', a 1917 German fantasy film by [[Paul Wegener]].
* ''[[Mischief in Wonderland]]'', a 1957 German fantasy film starring [[Alexander Engel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cinema.theiapolis.com/movie-1YNC/aufruhr-im-schlaraffenland/ |title=Aufruhr im Schlaraffenland (1957), a film by Otto Meyer |publisher=cinema.theiapolis.com |access-date=2015-07-06}}</ref>
* ''[[Pays de cocagne]]'', a 1971 documentary film directed by [[Pierre Étaix]].

=== Various ===
* ''[[The Joy of Cooking]]'' (first edition 1931) uses the word "Cockaigne" to indicate that the recipe was a favorite of the authors' parents.
* A ski resort in [[Cherry Creek, New York]] bore the name Cockaigne until its 2011 closure.<ref>{{cite news|last=Emke |first=Dave |title=Trying To Regroup: Ski Center Owners Look To Future After Fire Destroys Lodge |newspaper=[[The Post-Journal]] |date=2011-01-26 |url=http://www.post-journal.com/page/content.detail/id/578606/Trying-To-Regroup.html |access-date=2014-02-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222171537/http://www.post-journal.com/page/content.detail/id/578606/Trying-To-Regroup.html |archive-date=2014-02-22 }}</ref>  New ownership announced the resort would reopen in December 2019.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cockaigne resort in western New York plans mid-December opening |date=26 November 2019 |url=https://www.cleveland.com/business/2019/11/cockaigne-resort-in-western-new-york-plans-mid-december-opening.html |access-date=26 November 2019}}</ref>
* [[Nick Bostrom]] discusses Cockaigne as an example of the simplest type of utopia, that of endless material abundance, in the philosophy book ''Deep Utopia''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cuthbertson |first=Anthony |date=April 20, 2024 |title=AI and the meaning of life: Philosopher Nick Bostrom says technology could bring utopia but will force us to rethink our purpose |url=https://www.the-independent.com/tech/ai-deep-utopia-nick-bostrom-cockaigne-b2530807.html |website=The Independent}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Mythology}}
{{Commons category|Cockaigne}}
*[[Arcadia (utopia)]]
*[[Fiddler's Green]]
*[[Cloud cuckoo land]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Luisa Del Giudice, "Mountains of Cheese and Rivers of Wine: Paesi di Cuccagna and other Gastronomic Utopias," in ''Imagined States: National Identity, Utopia, and Longing in Oral Cultures'', ed. by Luisa Del Giudice and Gerald Porter, Logan: Utah State University Press, 2001: 11–63.
* Hardstaff, Sarah. “Candytown and the Land of Cockaigne: Gastronomic Utopia in The Nutcracker and the Mouse King and Other Children’s Literature.” ''Marvels & tales'' 34.1 (2020): 39–52. 
* Herman Pleij, ''Dreaming of Cockaigne: Medieval Fantasies of the Perfect Life'', trans. Diane Webb. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050207153710/http://www.thegoldendream.com/landofcokaygne.htm Original text and translations of poems of Cokaygne]
*[http://www.occultopedia.com/c/cockaigne.htm Occultopedia entry]
*[https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cockaigne Reference.com entry]
*[http://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/literature-english/english-literature-1499/land-cockaigne Encyclopedia.com entry]
*[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=24971&tocid=0&query=fabliau Encyclopædia Britannica entry]

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[[Category:Medieval legends]]
[[Category:Mythological kingdoms, empires, and countries]]
[[Category:Mythical utopias]]