top of page
This site was designed with the
.com
website builder. Create your website today.Start Now
Search
  • Writer's pictureAlex Bemish
    • Sep 1, 2023
    • 3 min read

Ys: A City in the Sea That's Not Atlantis [Something Interesting #13]

Updated: Dec 27, 2023

Lost cities are not something you hear a whole lot about these days. Once a staple of popular culture over a hundred years ago and longer, the trope doesn’t hold the same sway it once did. Whenever I do hear about them, it’s usually just a bypassing mention of Atlantis and something having to do with ancient aliens. While Atlantis certainly has its reasons for holding the imagination, there’s been many other lost cities over the years and today’s focus is on a faded classic: the Breton legend of Ys.


Flight of King Gradlon, by E. V. Luminais, 1884 (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Quimper)


Officially known as Kêr Ys (Breton for “low city”), the general version of the story is that it was a walled city built on the coast of Brittany and renowned for its gorgeous gardens and architecture. Founded by King Gradlon, the city was especially known for its vicinity to the sea and emphasizing the relationship between it and those who lived nearby. The reasoning for this was due to the influence of the princess Dahut, who literally worshipped the sea as a deity. Much of the story surrounding the city’s decline hinges on this particular detail, attributed to Dahut eschewing her father’s conversion to Christianity and keeping the pagan rituals in place. This leads to a situation involving Dahut inviting the devil (in the form of a Red Knight) and the city getting flooded due to neglecting the dam protecting the city from the sea. While I’m pretty certain there was more involved than just those events, it’s very much tied to its medieval roots and served mostly as an allegorical warning about sticking with paganism.


So if that sounds like I’m waving it off a little, why would I recommend this particular tale to read? Part of it has to do with the name. For most of my life, I had never even heard of this place and mostly associated the name “Ys” with something else: a JRPG series from the 1990s that I only saw mentioned in gaming magazines but never actually played that eventually spawned an anime OVA that I also read about but never actually saw (honestly have no idea what it's about or if it's any good...). So when I came across it, there was a disconnect involved for me and gave me a huge What is this?! vibe.


Reading more on it, it becomes clearer why it fell out of favor: it's a relic of a long-gone world. It, along with most other stories about lost cities and worlds, got replaced the more interconnected our real world became. They're products of times where far-off lands were so far-off that nobody had clear accurate records of what people did 200 miles away from them, let alone 1,000 miles away. We don't have that situation anymore and haven't for quite a long time (at least 150 years), so these kinds of tales have been superseded by science fiction and fantasy instead. It's a good example of how myths, once they aren't as relevant to those who hear them, just fade away with time. There's plenty of others that have the same thing happen yet, due to a quirk of fate, others remain popular or important even today like the Arthurian legends for example.


(Now, of course, I say this as an American living in the 21st century. If I were born in Brittany, I might have a different opinion on all of this, so take all of this as just opinion.)


While they might be effectively irrelevant, there is still a quaint charm to reading lost city stories and it would be terrible for them to disappear into the ether like Ys did into the Bay of Douarnenez. If you're interested in following more information about these places, here are some other non-Atlantis lost cities (real and legendary) for you to consider:

6 views0 comments
bottom of page