Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Kingdom of Saguenay
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
The name "Kingdom of Saguenay" (French: Royaume du Saguenay) has its origin in an Algonquin legend, as recorded by the French during French colonisation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. According to the Algonquin Indians, there was a kingdom to the north, of blond men rich with gold and furs, in a place they called Saguenay. While imprisoned in France in the 1530s, Chief Donnacona also told stories about it, claiming it had great mines of silver and gold. French explorers in Canada looked for this kingdom in vain. Today, it is typically understood to be entirely mythical, a European misunderstanding, or an Algonquin attempt to trick or confus the French. However, some people have speculated it was an ancient, pre-Columbian European settlement to which the Algonquin oral tradition referred, such as the Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows.
The name Saguenay survived in many modern placenames. The modern-day Saguenay region, including the city of Saguenay (Chicoutimi-Jonquière), is on both shores of the Saguenay River in Quebec. As the name of the river, the Kingdom has also become the namesake of Saguenay Herald at the Canadian Heraldic Authority. It is part of the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean administrative region. Today, the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region is sometimes referred to metaphorically as the Kingdom of the Saguenay (Royaume du Saguenay), for example in tourist marketing.
Unrelated to the legend, a micronational project in the Saguenay region, Le Royaume de L'Anse-Saint-Jean (q.v.), achieved a certain amount of prominence in 1997.
The name Saguenay is not related to Saginaw, the name of a river, bay and city in Michigan that is of Ojibway origin.
 |
This article relating to a myth or legend from North America is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |