- Ys is a Breton Legend of a Sunken City known as ‘Ker-Is’, which in French is known as the ‘Ville D’Ys’.
- It is reputed to lie off the coast of Brittany, locally believed to be the Bay of Douarnenez, in Finistere.
Sources
- Hammond Innes: ‘Sea and Islands’ Collins 1967 – Chapter III ‘The Breton Coast’
- He quotes local tradition that up until the French Revolution in 1789, the priests from all the churches around the Bay rowed out into the middle of the Bay each year and said a Mass for the lost souls of the sunken city.
- Walter de la Mer: ‘Sunk Lyonesse’ 1922
- This is a Poem about the lost Land.
- Edouard Blau wrote the libretto and Edouard Lalo composed the music for the opera: ‘Le roi d’Ys’ in 1888.
- It is based on the Breton Legend of the Sinking of Ys, capital of the kingdom of Cornouaille.
Carnac
- The Bronze Age Standing Stones of Carnac are located 83 miles (134km) to the southeast of the Bay of Douarnenez.
Other Legends of Sunken Cities
- Lyonesse:
- Cornwall in England, opposite Brittany in France, has a similar Legend of a country called Lyonesse, lost beneath the Sea.
- It was located between Cornwall and the Scilly Isles.
- St. Michael's Mount:
- A tidal island opposite Penzance in Cornwall, reveals sunken trees at very low tides.
- Cantre’r Gwalod’:
- This is the Welsh Legend of a lost country called ‘Cantre’r Gwalod’ which was reputed to lie in Cardigan Bay on the coast of Wales.
- Atlantis:
- The sunken City was located beyond the Pillars of Hercules according to Plato. The location of the Pillars remains a mystery.
Bay of Douarnenez, Brittany