NIGHTBRINGER | The Arthurian Encyclopedia

Logres

Two entries with the name Logres.


Logres

Nueue Troie

Brutus built this city in England and named it “la Nueue Troie.” It was later named Logres after Brutus the successor of Logryn. Today it is known as London.


Logres

Logereis, Logris, Logroys, Londres, Longres, Lugereis, Nogres

Arthur’s kingdom in a large number of texts. Roughly corresponding to the geographic area that we now call England. The

country of Logris ... that is for to say the country of England,

excluding Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall.

The name derives from Lloegr, the early Welsh name for England, perhaps derived from Anglo-Saxon legor, an element found in the place name of Leicester. The derivation of this legor is puzzling. It is said to be derived from the Latin term Loegria, which was used in early Latin texts to refer to the land of the Britons.

The name Logres was used throughout Arthurian legends to refer not just to England, but to the entire British realm of King Arthur. The name England, or “Engaland,” “Angle-Land,” was a product of the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain, after the Arthurian period. Geoffrey of Monmouth, using his typical creative eponomy, says that the kingdom of Logres was named after Locrine, son of King Brutus.

“King Arthur of Logres” is a fairly common designation in French and German legends, though the texts are often ambiguous as to whether Logres is a territory or a city. In the Vulgate romances, it is both, with the latter named as Arthur’s capital and identified with London. The site of several Saxon battles at the beginning of Arthur’s reign, Logres was invested with its own bishop. According to the Post-Vulgate Morte Artu, King Mark of Cornwall invaded and destroyed it after Arthur’s death.

In German romance, Logres is often noted as Gawain’s kingdom, since Wolfram von Eschenbach tells us that Gawain married Duchess Orgeluse of Logres (Orguelleuse), who, in turn, had inherited it from her late husband, Duke Cidegast. Though Malory refers to Arthur’s realm as “England,” he gives the surname “de Logres” to several knights.

According to Lewis Spence, Logres was the eastern part of ancient Britain. Other sources – Chrétien de Troyes for one – seem to apply the name generally to Arthur’s kingdom. In Perceval, line 6169-6170, Chrétien explains the name as signifying “the land of ogres,” which it allegedly was in pre-Arthurian times.


Sources
Historia Regum Britanniae | Geoffrey of Monmouth, c. 1138
Perceval, or Le Conte del Graal | Chrétien de Troyes, late 12th century
Parzival | Wolfram von Eschenbach, 1200–1210
Garel von dem blühenden Tal | Der Pleier, 1240-1270
Vulgate Lancelot | 1215-1230
Vulgate Merlin | 1220-1235
Post-Vulgate Queste del Saint Graal | 1230-1240
Post-Vulgate Mort Artu | 1230-1240
Le Morte Darthur | Sir Thomas Malory, 1469-1470